^.  .  ;   : «. 


o.  H.2  V 


LIBRARY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


PRINCETON,  N.  J 


BX  5937  .P67  W3  1892 
Potter,  Henry  Codman,  18J4- 

1908. 
Waymarks,  1870-1891 


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WAYM ARKS 


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BEING 


JBiscourjses,  toitl}  Some  ^Iccount  of  tl}eir  (Occasions 


/    BY 


HENRY    C.  POTTER,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


NEW     YORK 
E.    P.    BUTTON    AND    COMPANY 

31   West   Twentv-Third   Street 
1892 


Copyright,  1891, 
By  E.  p.  Dutton  and  Company. 


John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


TO   THE 

Clergg  anU  people  of  tt)c  Hioccsc  of  Keb)  Hork, 

AMONG    WHOM,  AS    PRESBYTER   AND    BISHOP,  HE    HAS    GONE 

IN  AND  OUT  FOR  TWENTY-THREE  YEARS  ONLY  TO  FIND 

THEIR    SERVICE    MORE    AND    MORE   A    PRIVILEGE, 

These  Discourses,  rvhich  m-e  a  part  of  the  Story  of  that  Service, 

ARE   DEDICATED 

By  their  attached  friend  and  servant, 

HENRY    CODMAN    POTTER. 


Diocesan  House,  New  York: 

St.  Andrew^ s  Day,  November  30,   1891. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

PREFATORY       1 

I.     The  Priesthood  of  Science 11 

II.     The  Young  Seer 27 

III.  A  Nation's  Prayers 44 

IV.  A  Nation's  Sorrow 66 

V.     Sermon  Commemorative  of  John  David  Wolfe  71 

YI.     Sermon  Commemorative  of  Adam  Xoriue  .     .  86 

VII.     A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday      ....  100 

VIII.     The   Reconstructive  Power  of    Christianity  119 

IX.     The   Church's    Needs 135 

X.     Sermon    preached    at    the   Consecration   of 
the  Cathedral  of  the  Incarnation,  Garden 

City,  L    I.,  June  2,  1885 158 

Xr.     Sermon     Preached    at    the    Benediction    of 
All    Saints     Cathedral,      Albany,    N.    Y. 

Nov.   20,   1888 176 

XII.     Woman's  Place  and  Work  in  the  Church     .  212 

XIII.     Chlrch  Schools  in  America 226 

XIV.     The  Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome     ...  243 


viii  Contents. 

Page 

XV.     The  American  Church  in  Paris 256 

XVL     The  Powers  and  the  Power  of  the  Episcopate  274 

XVII.     The  Calling  of  the  Episcopate 293 

XVIII.     A  Consecration  Sermon 312 

XIX.     The  Free  Church  a  Witness  to  the  Brother- 
hood OF  Humanity 327 

XX.     Agencies  of  Revival 345 

XXI.    Mission  and  Commission  :   A  Sermon  preached 
at  the  Consecration  of  the  Rev.  Phillips 

Brooks,  D.  D 361 


WAYMARKS. 

1870-1891. 


PREFATORY. 

The  materials  of  which  history  is  made  are  often  de- 
rived from  sources  apparently  the  most  remote  and  un- 
promising. Indeed,  it  may  be  said  to  be  a  chief  charm 
in  histories  that  have  qualities  of  enduring  interest,  that 
their  authors  have  not  disdained  such  sources,  however 
insignificant  or  obscure. 

It  is  in  some  such  considerations  that  this  volume 
must  find  its  excuse.  During  the  time  of  our  Civil 
War  I  remember  noting  upon  a  friend's  book-shelves  a 
volume  with  the  title  "  Sermons  of  the  Revolution."  I 
never  opened  it,  and  I  am  unable,  at  this  distance, 
farther  to  identify  it.  But  I  recollect  very  well  the 
train  upon  which,  not  unnaturally,  it  started  my  imagi- 
nation. For  if  the  preaching  of  the  Revolutionary 
period  was  at  all  colored  by  its  incidents,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  it  was  stirring  and  interesting. 

In  other  words,  the  preaching  of  any  particular  decade 
or  two  must  inevitably  reflect,  in  some  sense,  the  history 
of  the  time.  The  pulpit  is,  indeed,  called  upon  by  the 
very  nature  of  its  office  and  its  commission  to  be  above 

1 


2  Way  marks. 

the  hour  and  not  below  it,  to  lead  and  not  to  follow 
public  opinion  ;  and  it  undoubtedly  goes  far  to  explain 
its  loss  of  power,  whenever  and  wherever  it  has  lost 
power,  that  it  has  forgotten  its  office  as  an  enduring 
and,  in  one  sense  at  any  rate,  an  unchanging  witness,  in 
convulsive  and  often  unseemly  efforts  to  pitch  its  utter- 
ances in  the  key  of  some  passing  excitement.  It  may 
easily  vulgarize  itself  in  doing  this,  and  it  often  has ; 
but  the  fact  still  remains  that,  without  either  vulgarity 
or  unfaithfulness,  it  may  in  many  ways  wisely  empha- 
size, illustrate,  or  forecast  the  more  serious  and  eventful 
activities  of  a  generation. 

And  certainly  —  to  pursue  no  farther  a  question  which 
might  easily  open  the  door  to  a  very  large  controversy 
—  this  much  is  true  of  discourses  which  are  occasional 
in  their  nature,  and  which  have  been  called  out  by  the 
very  noteworthy  progress  of  the  life  of  the  Church  dur- 
ing the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  no  less  by  those 
significant  movements,  not  always  strictly  ecclesiastical 
in  their  character,  to  which,  nevertheless,  the  quickened 
life  of  the  Church  has  contributed  so  much. 

The  discourses  which  follow  are  chiefly  of  this  nature. 
They  mark  a  considerable  variety  of  incidents,  each  of 
which  may  be  said  in  some  sense  to  be  representative, 
and  if  they  do  no  more,  they  throw  some  little  light  upon 
the  story  of  twenty  years  which,  in  the  life  of  the  Church 
even  more  than  in  the  larger  life  of  the  nation,  have 
been  eventful  years. 

Only  a  little  while  before  they  began  our  great  Civil 
War  had  but  just  ended;  and  between   1865  and  1870 


Prefatory.  3 

the  re-united  Church  and  the  re-united  Nation  were 
taking  account  of  themselves,  and,  in  the  case  of  the 
former  especially,  coming  to  recognize  the  larger  oppor- 
tunities which  confronted  it.  Of  some  of  these,  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Church  has  sought  to  improve  them, 
of  the  men  whom  she  has  called  to  seize  them,  of  the 
institutions  she  has  created  or  revived,  the  better  to 
utilize  them,  the  pages  that  follow  will  speak. 
The  topics  included  among  them  are  — 

The  Priesthood  of  Science, 

Missions, 

The  Organized  Work  of  Women, 

Free  Churches, 

Cathedrals, 

Citizenship  and  the  Citizen, 

The  Episcopate, 

Higher  Christian  Education, 

The  American  Sunday, 

New  York  Merchants, 

National  Bereavements, 

and  others  which  furnish  occasion  to  take  note  of  the 
forces  which  have  contributed  both  to  the  life  of  the 
nation  and  the  progress  of  the  Church,  and  those  con- 
ceptions of  their  obligations  on  which,  as  experience  has 
shown,  that  progress  will  largely  depend.  That  those 
conceptions,  so  far,  especially,  as  the  Church  is  con- 
cerned, widely  differ,  is  a  fact  which  to  the  student  of 
ecclesiastical  history  is  patent  at  every  turn.  Roughly 
stated,  that  difference  may  be  said  to  be  incarnated  in 
the  attitude  of  the  individualists  and  the  institutionalists. 


4  Way  marks. 

To  the  first  of  these  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament 
is  a  purely  personal  message.  The  men  to  whom  first  it 
came,  it  has  been  trimiiphantly  urged,  were  incapable  of 
receiving  any  other  ;  and  the  enormous  power  with  which 
they  acted  upon  their  time  resided  principally  in  their 
absolute  emancipation  from  every  shred  of  institutional 
despotism.  That,  later,  that  despotism,  expelled  at 
first,  found  its  way  back  into  the  Church  and  climbed  to 
the  high  places  of  its  power,  —  all  this,  we  are  told,  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  primitive  Christianity 
lost  its  simplicity  in  proportion  as  it  gained  worldly 
prosperity,  and  gained  organic  compactness  and  com- 
pleteness as  it  lost  its  earlier  spirituality. 

"  On  the  contrary,"  declare  the  Institutionalists,  "  the 
seeds  of  every  organic  detail  of  the  Church  of  the  fifth 
or  the  fifteenth  century  existed  in  the  simpler  organiza- 
tion of  the  first.  So  far  from  their  being  a  product  of 
the  splendid  and  ceremonious  imperialism  of  the  age 
and  the  empire  of  Constantino,  they  were  the  consum- 
mate flower  of  those  germs  which  Christ  planted  in  the 
heart  of  His  Church  when  he  said,  "  This  do,"  "  Go 
teach,"  or  spoke  the  few  other  simple  commands  of 
which  the  New  Testament  has  preserved  the  record. 
The  principle  of  authority  was  there,  —  the  authority  of 
the  Church  to  decree  rites  and  ceremonies,  if  neces- 
sary to  create  institutions,  to  command  obedience,  in 
one  word  to  repeat  in  the  sixteenth,  the  nineteenth,  or 
any  other  century,  the  Roman  imperialism  of  the  first. 

Yes,  the  principle  of  authority  was  there  ;  but  it  will 
be  well  to  remember  how  it  was  there.     As  a  remedy 


Prefatory.  6 

for  the  lawlessness,  the  unbelief,  the  indifference  (largely 
exaggerated,  however)  to  constitutional  rule,  whether  in 
the  Church  or  in  the  State,  which  are  now  said  to  exist 
among  us,  it  is  proposed  in  some  zealous  and  well-mean- 
ing quarters  to  revive  the  era  of  authority,  to  dismiss 
that  fundamental  condition  of  Anglo-Saxon  moral  and 
intellectual  character  and  conduct  which  w^as  born  out 
of  darkness  when  the  Barons  at  Runnymede  wrung 
Magna  Charta  from  the  reluctant  hands  of  King  John, 
which,  whether  in  the  life  of  the  Church  or  the  State 
has  been  the  seed-principle  of  hope  and  progress  ever 
since,  and  to  erect  upon  the  ruins  of  the  noblest  civiliza- 
tion and  the  loftiest  type  of  Christian  discipleship  which 
the  world  has  seen  a  blind  idolatry  to  the  principle  of 
authority.  But  what  do  those  who  so  desire  mean  when 
they  speak  of  authority  ?  Most  surely,  they  are  right 
who  insist  that  Christianity  is  an  Institutional  as  well  as 
an  individual  religion.  Nothing  can  be  plainer  than 
that  Christ  laid  the  foundation,  defined  the  conditions, 
appointed  the  signs  or  notes,  designated  and  commis- 
sioned tlie  officers  of  a  Divine  Society,  who  were  to 
exercise  authority,  and  in  whom  the  administration  of 
discipline  and  the  responsibility  both  for  the  due  teach- 
ing and  due  definition  of  the  Faith,  were  permanently 
vested.  But  under  what  conditions  ?  One  listens  to 
some  modern  preacher  thundering  his  anathemas  from 
some  pulpit  safely  removed  from  the  challenge  or  the 
disapproval  of  his  constituency,  against  all  who  disown 
or  interrogate  the  voice  of  authority,  and  then  contrasts 
such  utterances  with  those  of  Apostolic  men  and  Apos- 


6  Waymarks. 

tolic  days  :  "  I  speak  as  unto  wise  men,  judge  ye ; " 
"  Know  ye  not,  of  your  own  selves  ; "  "  Let  each  man  be 
fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  Plainly  enough,  the 
Church  of  New  Testament  days  was  far  enough  removed 
from  that  self-sufficient  individualism  that  owns  no  voice 
of  authority  but  its  own  will,  and  dismisses  the  idea  of  a 
divinely  constituted  government  in  the  Church  as  equally 
hostile  to  liberty  and  to  right.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  was  no  less  removed  from  that  arrogant  ecclesiasti- 
cism  which  allows  no  challenge  of  its  authority  nor  any 
criticism  of  its  methods.  Both  the  one  and  the  other  it 
sought  to  commend  to  the  world  not  so  much  by  its 
claims  as  by  its  deeds.  In  the  spirit  of  Saint  James  it 
taught  its  disciples  not  so  much  to  boast  of  its  pedigree 
as  to  vindicate  the  dignity  of  its  lineage  by  the  splendor 
of  its  service.  ''  Show  me  thy  faith  without  thy  works," 
it  said  to  men  whose  chief  pride  was  a  pride  in  their  or- 
thodoxy, ''  and  I  will  show  thee  my  faith  by  my  works." 

And  what  it  said  then  it  has  pre-eminent  need  to  say, 
and  to  say  in  the  language  of  a  lowly  and  unselfish  ser- 
vice to-day.  It  is  certainly  worth  remembering  concern- 
ing the  Founder  of  Christianity,  that  though  He  would 
have  been  justified  on  grounds  which  can  never  be  those 
of  His  disciples  in  making  much  of  His  authority  and 
its  source,  He  never,  except  when  provoked  to  do  so  1)y 
explicit  challenge,  does  either.  He  is  content  to  let  His 
life  and  work,  and  the  substance  and  quality  of  His 
teaching  speak  for  Him. 

And  His  Church  may  well  be  content  to  do  the  same. 
Even  if  the  everlasting  assertion  of  her  claims  and  the 


Prefatory.  7 

boastful  exhibition  of  her  pedigree  were  not  equally  un- 
interesting and  unintelligible  to  the  great  majority  of 
those  to  whom  she  comes,  there  is  an  essential  vulgarity 
in  such  an  exhibition  which  marks  at  once  the  novice  and 
the  parvenu.  Those  who  are  assured  of  their  position 
are  not  always  clamoring  that  other  people  shall  recog- 
nize it.  They  are  content  that  the  claims  of  honorable 
lineage  and  noble  blood  shall  reveal  themselves  in  nobil- 
ity of  speech  and  conduct. 

And  this  is  substantially  the  calling  of  the  Church  to- 
da3\  Confronted  with  the  problems  of  to-day,  she  is 
not  a  creature  of  to-day.  Whensoever  any  shall  ask  of 
her  a  reason  of  the  faith  that  is  in  her,  she  may  not 
forget  that  glorious  past  nor  that  Apostolic  ancestry 
from  which  she  received  it.  The  Church  of  Christ  is 
not  a  gelatinous  body,  formless,  flabby,  invertebrate. 
Her  organic  life  is  at  once  continuous  and  cumulative 
in  the  force  of  its  impact  upon  the  sins  and  wrongs  of 
the  world,  just  because  it  is  organic ;  and  it  is  at  her 
peril  that  she  disesteems  or  undervalues  it. 

But,  all  the  same,  the  fact  still  remains  that  she  must 
demonstrate  its  reality  and  its  power  rather  by  what  she 
is  than  by  what  she  says.  As  she  shows  to  men  at  once 
her  flexibility  and  her  constancy,  —  her  power  of  adjust- 
ing herself  to  particular  emergencies,  and  her  tenacity 
in  maintaining  her  supernatural  faith  and  order,  —  she 
will  best  prove  her  Scriptural  and  Catholic  doctrine  and 
demonstrate  her  possession  of  an  immortal  heritage. 
In  a  generation  eager  to  believe  that  anything  new  is  as 
good  or  better  than  anything  old,  she  must  make  it  plain 


8  Wayynarks. 

that  "  the  old  is  better,"  the  old  faith,  the  old  order,  the 
old  discipline,  by  showing  that  these  can  adjust  them- 
selves to  every  new  emergency  and  prove  not  unequal 
to  the  gravest  of  them. 

It  is  out  of  this  strong  persuasion  that  the  discourses 
which  follow  have  come.  Diverse  as  are  the  occasions 
which  inspired  them,  and  the  subjects  with  which  they 
deal,  they  will  be  found,  it  is  believed,  to  have  an  essen- 
tial unity  in  an  underlying  aim  to  vindicate  the  message 
of  the  Church  as  a  living  message,  and  the  truths  which 
are  her  inheritance  as  capable  almost  indefinitely  of  re- 
statement and  re-adaptation,  but  unchanging  in  their 
substance,  and  eternal  in  their  appropriateness  alike  to 
the  needs  of  the  personal  soul  and  to  the  manifold  wants 
of  human  society. 

H.  C.  P. 
St.  James  Day, 

July  25,  1891. 


THE   PRIESTHOOD   OF   SCIENCE. 

Early  in  this  century  a  lad  entered  the  Lehigh  Valley  who  was 
destined  to  leave  upon  its  future  an  enduring  mark.  He 
brought  nothing  with  him  save  a  resolute  purpose  and  the 
promise  of  a  vigorous  mind,  but  with  these  two  weapons  he 
carved  his  way,  by  steadily  advancing  steps,  to  fortune  and 
honor.  Whatever  others  may  have  done  for  the  region  in 
which  he  spent  his  life  and  energies,  the  part  which  Asa 
Packer  bore  in  the  development  of  its  physical  resources  and 
in  the  building  of  its  great  water  and  rail  ways  must  always 
occupy  a  commanding  place.  Beginning  with  the  humblest 
tasks,  he  speedily  made  himself  ht  for  others  that  were 
higher;  and  as  he  rose  step  b}^  step  in  wealth  and  influence 
he  more  and  more  clearly  discerned  and  vigorously  seized  the 
opportunities  which  opened  before  him.  Without  earl}^  ad- 
vantages himself,  he  did  not  disparage  their  worth  to  others, 
and  so  there  was  formed  and  grew  in  his  mind  the  idea  of  a 
University  which,  under  distinctly  Christian  sanctions  and 
in  cordial  recognition  of  the  place  and  office  of  the  Church  in 
education,  should  especially  provide  that  training  in  the 
physical  sciences  which,  while  not  disdaining  other  culture, 
might  best  equip  young  men  for  the  tasks  and  problems 
which  the  founder  of  Lehigh  University  had  found  at  every 
turn  confronting  him. 

It  is  not  an  uncommon  characteristic  of  successful  men 
who  have  won  success  without  the  aid  of  collegiate  training 
to  disparage  and  disesteem  it.  That  wealth  and  place  and 
power    have    been   won   without  it  is  proof  enough  to  them 


10  Waymarks. 

that  they  and  others  do  not  need  it.  But,  as  in  religion,  as 
the  late  Lord  Beaconsfield  with  characteristic  felicity  desig- 
nated them,  there  are  "maimed  rites,"  so  in  human  achieve- 
ment there  are  one-sided  and  deformed  results.  There  is 
Avealth  without  modesty,  and  power  without  discrimination, 
and  success  as  bald  and  barren  of  any  humane  grace  or  charm 
as  a  steam-pump.  And  operating  in  its  sphere  precisely  in 
the  same  way  as  does  a  steam-pump,  successful  manhood  may 
churn  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth  or  the  depths  of  some 
undetected  chance  its  colossal  fortune,  and  be  at  the  end  of 
its  career  as  empty  of  beauty  or  appreciation  for  excellence, 
or  the  love  of  wisdom,  or  learning,  or  goodness,  as  at  the 
beginning.  It  is  not  only  the  charm  but  the  glory  of  cul- 
ture that  it  helps  to  make  one  more  largely  discerning  and 
more  truly  symmetrical ;  and  it  no  more  disproves  the  value  of 
learning  that  successful  men  are  often  indifferent  to  this, 
than  it  disproves  the  value  of  light  that  a  blind  man  cannot 
see  it. 

It  was  the  happy  distinction  of  Asa  Packer  that  he  could 
recognize  the  value  of  gifts  and  privileges  which  he  himself 
had  not  enjoyed;  and  there  is  something  very  inspiring  in 
the  career  of  one  who  ennobled  great  wealth  by  so  wise  and 
noble  a  use  of  it.  Judge  Packer's  gifts  and  bequests  to  the 
University  amounted  to  over  three  millions  of  dollars,  and  he 
provided  that  its  instruction  should  be  forever  free. 

The  two  sermons  that  follow  were  both  preached  before 
the  faculty  and  students  of  Lehigh  University,  — the  first  on 
June  18,  1871,  and  the  second  on  the  occasion  of  the  conse- 
cration of  the  beautiful  Memorial  Chapel  for  the  University 
erected  by  the  daughter  of  the  founder,  Mrs.  Mary  Packer 
Cummings,  on  Founder's  Day,  October  13,  1887.  The 
preacher  gladly  records  his  indebtedness  in  connection  with 
the  former  to  the  late  principal  Shairp's  admirable  volume 
"Religion  and  Culture." 


I. 

THE   PRIESTHOOD   OF   SCIENCE. 

Thepriesfs  lips  should  keep  knowledge.  — Malachi  ii.  7. 

Keep  it,  that  is  to  say,  not  in  the  sense  of  secreting, 
but  of  acquiring.  The  Hebrew  word  ^*'?^'.  —  translated 
''  keep "  —  has  an  expressiveness  which  our  English 
version  fails  to  give.  The  idea  which  lingers  in 
its  root  is  that  of  open-eyed  and  expectant  alertness, 
and  the  meaning  here  is  that  the  priest  is  to  be  not 
merely  a  mausoleum  of  buried  information,  but  an 
open-mouthed  acquirer  of  still  fuller  knowledge.  Some 
men's  wisdom  is  betrayed  supremely  by  their  reticence. 
They  are  chiefly  remarkable  for  what  they  do  not  say. 
They  wear  a  sage  look,  but  their  lips  are  stiffly  com 
pressed,  as  if  they  feared  lest  their  knowledge  should 
somehow  leak  out  unawares.  The  text  gives  no  counte- 
nance to  such.  It  bids  the  priest's  lips  keep  knowledge 
by  cherishing  that  interrogating,  inquisitive,  receptive 
temper  which  daily  seeks  to  increase  it.  The  priest  is 
not  so  much  to  hoard  what  he  has  as  to  aim  to  greaten 
past  acquirements  by  the  gain  of  new  and  larger  truths. 
He  is  to  utter  words  of  wisdom,  but  he  is  first  to  see  to 
it  that  he  had  some  words  of  wisdom  to  utter. 


12  Way  marks. 

In  other  words,  the  meaning  of  the  language  is  that 
the  priest  should  be  a  student,  —  leading  and  teaching 
others,  because  he  is  being  daily  led  and  taught  himself. 
And  so  1  accept  it  as  not  inaptly  describing  a  future 
mission  of  those  to  whom,  especially,  I  speak  to-day. 
Yours,  gentlemen  of  the  Lehigh  University,  is  a  priest- 
hood which,  though  it  be  less  technically  religious,  is  as 
veritable  as  any  other.  "  Homo  Minister  et  Interpres 
Naturae,"  is  the  legend  which  I  read  upon  the  fore-front 
of  your  Institution ;  and  what  could  more  aptly  or  more 
suggestively  intimate  the  mission  which  you  are  here 
training  yourselves  to  fulfil  ?  Is  it  not  to  be  your  high 
function  to  leave  the  herd  behind,  and  pass  onward  into 
most  intimate  communion  with  science  and  with  Nature  ? 
Is  it  not  your  rare  privilege  to  lay  your  listening  ears 
closest  to  the  lips  of  the  silent  oracle,  and  catch  so  a 
murmur  of  truths  which  less  tutored  learners  may  not 
hope  to  hear  ?  Is  it  not  reserved  for  some  of  you,  as 
you  shall  go  on  turning  over  the  strata  of  the  earth's 
surface,  as  one  would  turn  over  the  pages  of  a  book, 
to  read  off  from  them  the  vindication  of  that  law  which 
hath  its  seat  in  the  bosom  of  God  ?  And  if  so,  are  you 
not  called,  like  Moses,  to  bear  these  tables  of  stone  on 
which  God  has  written  His  eternal  mind,  back  again  to 
the  great  congregation  of  humanity,  and  unfolding  there 
their  meaning,  so  to  be  the  true  and  veritable  priests  of 
science  ?  Accept  then  the  priesthood  to  which  you  are 
called,  and  reverence  it  as  sucli !  In  grouping  the  call- 
ings which  you  are  to  follow  under  so  sacred  a  name,  I 
would  fain  have  you  think  very  highly  of  those  callings. 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  13 

A  man  who  thinks  meanly  of  his  own  vocation,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  provided  it  be  an  honest  one,  is  very  apt 
sooner  or  later  to  have  a  tolerably  valid  reason  for 
thinking  meanly  of  himself.  Least  of  all,  surely,  ought 
this  to  be  their  error  who  are  to  analyze  the  elements 
or  disinter  the  buried  treasures,  or  construct  the  ever- 
lengthening  highways,  of  this  wonderful  world  of  ours. 
He  who  deals  with  Nature,  whether  in  levelling  her 
mountains  and  filling  up  her  valleys,  or  in  applying  the 
solvent  of  his  patient  scrutiny  to  her  manifold  secret 
resources,  has  a  calling  at  once  most  dignified  and  most 
responsible.  The  ancients  were  wont  to  put  their  roads 
under  the  patronage  of  their  deities,  and  verily  we 
moderns  must  needs  look  with  something  of  their  ear- 
lier wonder  and  awe  upon  triumphs  of  civil  engineering 
in  those  old  days  which  seem  well-nigh  superhuman. 
Nay,  more,  a  man  who  bears  so  important  a  part  as 
does  he  who  constructs  some  great  highway,  in  binding 
continents  together  and  widening  the  empire  of  Chris- 
tian civilization,  must  verily,  I  think,  sometimes  recog- 
nize how  sacred  and  conspicuous  a  part  he  is  bearing  in 
hastening  the  Millennial  glories  ! 

And  if  he  is,  the  question  is  surely  not  an  indifferent 
one,  how  may  he  best  discharge  his  high  responsibilities, 
and  most  worthily  bear  his  part  in  the  carving  and  archi- 
tecture of  a  better  future  ?  It  is  that  question,  as  I 
conceive,  which  is  so  aptly  and  comprehensively  an- 
swered in  the  text. 

The  true  minister  of  any  science  must,  in  the  first 
place,  be  — 


14  Waymarks, 

1.  A  student.  It  is  too  commonly  concluded  that 
life  may  generally  be  divided  into  two  periods,  the 
period  of  preparation,  and  the  period  of  performance. 
And  so  when  many  a  man  leaves  college  walls  he  bids 
farewell  to  books  and  to  study,  forever.  Has  he  not 
to  work  for  his  living,  he  tells  you ;  and  how  can  he 
hope  to  be  doing  more  than  his  daily  task  ?  Ah,  how 
many  such  there  are  in  the  busy  world  about  us,  who 
have  been  swallowed  up  by  the  mere  drudgery  of  their 
vocation !  They  had  glorious  visions  of  great  achieve- 
ments once  ;  they  had  meant  to  leave  something  be- 
hind them,  when  they  went  out  of  the  world,  whereby 
the  race  should  have  cause  to  remember  them.  But 
the  dry  routine  or  the  coarse  ambitions  of  life  have 
been  too  much  for  them.  They  follow  what  they  call 
professions,  not  trades,  but  they  have  turned  their  pro- 
fession into  a  trade,  and  are  simply  manufacturing  their 
knowledge  into  a  marketable  commodity.  "  Of  our 
day  it  may  truly  be  said,"  to  borrow  the  language  of 
an  English  scholar,^  "  that  high  living  and  plain  think- 
ing are  the  all  in  all."  In  other  words,  "  in  an  age  of 
great  material  prosperity  like  the  present,  when  the 
comforts  and  conveniences  of  physical  life  have  vastly 
increased  and  science  is  every  day  increasing  them," 
these  comforts  are  apt  to  seem,  in  themselves,  a  satisfy- 
ing portion,  and  the  thing  to  be  chiefly  sought  after. 
Suppose  that  one  of  you  here  this  morning  were  offered 
the  alternative  of  joining  an  exploring  expedition  to 
South  America  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  examina- 
1  J.  C.  Shairp,  Religion  and  Culture,  p.  50. 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  15 

tion  of  its  mineral  resources  in  the  interests  of  science 
and  the  world's  increased  knowledge,  the  compensation 
being  a  bare  maintenance,  or  a  position  as  mining  engi- 
neer in  connection  with  a  Nevada  mining  company,  your 
salary  being  five  thousand  dollars  and  your  expenses, 
can  you  doubt  that  the  spirit  of  the  day  would  bid  you 
accept  the  latter  ?  Yet  the  one  offers  you  an  unexplored 
continent  with  who  knows  what  glorious  secrets  slum- 
bering in  its  bosom,  while  from  the  other  you  can  only 
hope,  it  may  be,  for  a  narrow  range  of  familiar  and 
traditional  processes.  To  yield  to  such  temptations  is 
the  danger,  as  in  these  days  of  well-nigh  every  other 
profession,  so  of  those  professions  which  are  to  be 
yours. 

And  so  I  ask  you,  standing  here  upon  their  threshold, 
to  remember  that  knowledge  is  forever  sacreder  and 
more  precious  than  the  merely  material  and  market- 
able results  of  knowledge.  Yours  may  be  circumstances 
which  shall  shut  you  up  to  a  very  narrow  round,  and 
demand  of  vou  verv  fatis;uino;  toils.  Yet  I  verilv  be- 
lieve  that  you  can  find  no  happier  recreation  than  in 
carrying  the  studies  which  you  have  begun  here  into 
other  and  more  active  spheres.  You  will  not  account 
me  disrespectful  to  the  thorough  and  admirable  curric- 
ulum of  your  University  if  I  remind  you  that  when  you 
have  traversed  it,  you  have  as  students  just  begun  the 
work  of  life,  —  just  learned  to  use  the  faculties  with 
which  a  gracious  Providence  has  endowed  you.  Use 
them,  I  beseech  you,  upon  new  and  ever-aspiring  tasks ! 
Have  an  ideal  in  the  profession  which  you  have  chosen, 


16  Waymarks. 

up  toward  which  you  are  daily  reaching.  It  may  be  an 
impossible  ideal.  The  old  alchemists  never  discovered 
the  philosopher's  stone,  though  they  burned  the  mid- 
night oil  for  a  lifetime,  and  melted  whole  fortunes  in 
their  ever-bubbling  crucibles.  But  what  helpful  truths 
came  out  of  those  smoky  laboratories,  and  above  all, 
w^hat  sublime  examples  of  patient  and  untiring,  ever- 
interrogating  industry  were  lived  in  them,  to  be  the 
inspiration  of  every  student  of  physical  science  or  art 
ever  since  !  "  I  had  to  be  my  own  mason,  my  own 
plasterer,  my  own  water-carrier,"  said  Bernard  Palissy, 
telling  what  toils  it  cost  him  to  discover  for  pottery  a 
w^hite  enamel ;  "  I  had  even  to  transport  bricks  on  my 
own  back,  —  I  had  to  watch  my  furnace  and  keep  its 
heat  aglow  for  six  consecutive  days  and  nights.  But 
meantime,  and  though  disheartened  by  my  oft-repeated 
failures,  I  found  moments  in  which  to  study  chemistry, 
and  so,  the  road  by  which  to  conquer  every  difficulty." 
If  such  a  man  had  been  vanquished  by  his  difficulties, 
as  many  a  faithful  student  of  art  or  science  has  been 
since  then,  he  would  still  have  served  the  race  best 
of  all  by  his  heroic  devotion  to  a  seemingly  unattain- 
able ideal.  "  What  have  we,"  cry  the  mercenary  mate- 
rialists of  our  day,  in  the  words  of  a  recent  writer,^  "  to 
do  with  ideals  ?  Let  us  leave  them  to  the  rapt  poet, 
to  the  recluse  thinker,  or  to  the  dreaming  visionary.  It 
is  the  actual,  the  hard  facts  of  life  that  we  have  to 
deal  with  ;  to  push  our  way  in  the  world,  and,  hemmed 
in  by,  and  often  well-nigh  crushed  beneath,  imperious 

1  Shairp,  Religion  and  Culture,  pp.  25,  26. 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  IT 

circumstances,  to  maintain  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Enough  for  us  if  we  can  battle  through  them  without 
being  overpowered.  Ideals  !  let  us  leave  them  to  those 
who  have  wealth  and  leisure  :  they  are  among  the 
luxuries,  not  the  necessaries  of  life.  For  us,  we  have 
enough  to  do  to  make  something  of  the  real." 

"  To  make  something  of  the  real.  Yes,  that  is  it, 
precisely.  But  how,"  it  has  well  been  asked,^  "are  we  to 
make  anything  of  the  real,  actual,  unless  we  have  some 
aim  to  direct  our  efforts,  some  clue  to  guide  us  through 
its  labyrinths  ?  "  And  this  aim,  this  clue,  is  just  what 
is  meant  by  the  Ideal.  You  may  dislike  the  word,  and 
reject  it,  but  the  thing,  if  you  would  live  any  life  above 
that  of  mere  brutes,  you  cannot  get  rid  of.  An  aim, 
an  ideal  of  some  sort,  if  you  have  reason,  and  "  look 
before  and  after,"  you  must  have.  True,  no  man's  life 
can  be  wholly  occupied  with  the  ideal,  not  even  the 
poet's  or  the  philosopher's.  Each  man  must  acquaint 
himself  with  numberless  details  and  must  manipulate 
them,  —  must  learn  the  stuff  that  the  world  is  made  of, 
and  how  to  deal  with  it.  But  though  most  of  us  are 
immersed  in  business,  or  battling  all  life  through  with 
tough  conditions,  yet,  if  we  are  not  to  sink  into  mere 
selfish  animality  we  must  needs  have  some  master-aim  to 
guide  us,  —  "  something  that  may  dwell  upon  the  heart 
though  it  be  not "  always  or  often  "  named  upon  the 
tongue."  For,  if  there  be  sometimes  a  danger  lest  the 
young  enthusiast,  through  too  great  devotion  to  an 
abstract  ideal,  should  essay  the  impossible,  and  bruise 

1  Religion  and  Culture. 
2 


l8  Waymarks. 

or  crush  himself  against  the  walls  of  destiny,  far  more 
common  is  it  for  men,  in  our  day,  to  be  so  crushed 
under  manhood's  burdens  that  they  abandon  all  the 
higher  aims  of  their  youth,  and  submit  to  be  driven 
like  gin-horses  — 

"  round  the  daily  scene 
Of  sad  subjection  and  of  sick  routine." 

Bear  with  me,  my  brothers,  if  I  urge  you  to  see  to  it 
that  you  are  betrayed  into  no  such  dreary  blunder. 
While  cherishing  and  utilizing  the  practical  side  of 
whatever  studies  you  have  chosen  here,  or  calling  here- 
after, remember  that  it  has  upper  walks,  with  loftier 
secrets  than  any  you  have  penetrated  yet.  Be  a  better 
worker,  because  you  are  the  better  student.  Challenge 
the  difficulties  in  those  studies  to  whose  application  to 
common  life  you  have  devoted  yourselves.  Believe 
me,  though  you  may  not  always  solve  the  problem  for 
whose  key  you  may  be  searching,  you  will  win  some- 
thing better  than  any  single  secret,  —  not  merely  more 
supple  faculties,  and  readier  mental  aptitudes,  but  a 
heartier  love  of  any  and  every  truth  for  its  own  sake, 
and  a  more  willing  and  docile  readiness  to  follow 
loyally  wheresoever  that  truth  may  lead  you. 

2.  And  this  leads  me  to  remind  you  that,  as"  mem- 
bers of  the  noble  priesthood  of  science  and  of  learning, 
it  behooves  you  to  be  not  merely  students,  but  catho- 
lic students.  Your  own  studies  here  will,  I  doubt  not, 
have  been  and  will  be  my  best  allies  in  enforcing  this 
necessity.  For  surely  a  student  of  any  particular  de 
partment  of  learning  cannot  advance  in  it  a  great  way 


The  Priesthood  of  Science,  19 

Avitliout  finding  that  there  are  other  departments  of 
learning,  which  he  must  take  as  torches  in  either  hand, 
if  he  would  find  his  way  much  farther  amid  its  practi- 
cal difficulties.  What,  for  instance,  could  a  civil  en- 
gineer do  without  some  knowledge  both  of  geology 
and  of  chemistry  ?  He  must  know  the  fibre  of  the  hills 
through  which  he  is  hewing  his  way,  and  the  dura- 
bility of  the  materials  with  which  he  is  piling  up  his 
slender  and  yet  much-enduring  trestle-work.  And 
such  a  case  is  a  type  of  innumerable  others.  We  draw 
a  line  around  certain  domains  of  knowledge,  and  call 
this  one  or  that  one  by  the  name  of  a  particular  sci- 
ence. But,  in  fact,  each  science  invades  and  overlaps 
the  other.  The  surgeon  must  be  something  of  a  cutter, 
and  the  chemist  something  of  a  botanist.  No  man  can 
shut  himself  away  from  any  one  of  the  wide  fellow- 
ships of  human  knowledge,  and  say,  "  I  have  no  need 
of  thee!" 

Says  Emerson :  "  I  knew  a  draughtsman,  employed 
in  a  public  survey,  who  found  that  he  could  not 
sketch  the  rocks  until  their  geological  structure  was 
first  explained  to  him."  When  he  knew  that,  then 
his  geology  helped  his  art,  and  he  did  his  work  at  once 
deftly  and  truly.  Even  so  of  departments  of  knowl- 
edge that  seem  the  farthest  apart  from  each  other. 
"  What  connection  is  there,"  we  should  be  tempted  to 
ask,  "  between  the  study  of  anatomy  and  bridge-build- 
ing?" But  "  Duhamel  built  a  bridge  by  letting  in  a 
piece  of  stronger  timber  for  the  middle  of  the  under 
surface,  getting  his  hint  to  do  so  from  the  structure 


20  Waymarks. 

of  the  shin-bone."  ^  Smeaton  wanders  through  the 
forest,  and  there  communmg  with  rural  nature,  after 
a  fashion  which  the  modern  materialist  would  perhaps 
consider  very  unprofitable,  he  finds  the  clue  to  the  con- 
struction of  the  Eddystone  lighthouse  in  the  outlines 
of  an  oak-tree.  Indeed,  as  Watt  was  a  geometrician, 
and  Michael  Angelo  a  sculptor  as  well  as  a  painter,  so 
there  are  very  few  of  any  of  the  great  names  in  sci- 
ence or  art  who  have  not  shown  the  immense  advan- 
tage to  any  particular  calling  of  widening  one's  view 
and  aim  beyond  its  particular  limits.  And  this,  too, 
with  reference  not  merely  to  what  may  be  called 
practical  or  material  advantage,  but  with  reference,  su- 
premely, to  the  highest  and  truest  advantage.  ''A 
man  is  more  than  his  trade."  The  spirit  that  is  in 
each  man  craves  other  nourishment  than  the  bread 
he  wins.  In  saying  this  I  do  not  forget  that  we  have 
each  one  of  us  our  special  work  to  do,  and  that  it 
often  tasks  all  our  strength,  whether  in  the  study,  the 
class-room,  office,  or  the  mine,  or  the  laboratory,  to 
do  it. 

But  while  fully  acknowledging  that,  in  order  to  suc- 
ceed in  any  particular  calling,  we  must  not  only  be  dis- 
tinctively harnessed  to  it,  but  must  also  bring  to  it  the 
finest  edge  of  faculty  and  a  steadfast  devotion  of  all 
that  we  have  learned  by  accurate  and  exclusive  techni- 
cal training,  I  must  still  believe,  in  the  language  of  a 
wise  teacher  of  our  own  time,  that  ''  there  is  something 
more  than  this  and  greater ;  which,  if  we  desire  to  be- 

1  Emerson,  Essay  on  Art,  p.  38. 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  21 

come  not  merely  useful  instruments,  but  men,  must 
never  be  lost  sight  of.  The  professional  or  scientific 
inquirer  who,  over  and  above  his  daily  duties  and  busi- 
ness relations,  has  learned  to  feel  that  he  has  other 
relations,  wider  and  more  permanent,  with  his  fellow- 
beings  in  all  ages,  that  he  is  a  debtor  for  all  that  he 
has  and  is  to  a  wider  circle  of  things  than  that  with 
which  he  outwardly  comes  in  contact,  that  he  is  an 
heir  of  all  the  great  and  good  who  have  lived  before 
him,  —  is  not  on  that  account  a  worse  workman,  and 
is  certainly  a  higher  and  better  man."  Unless  he  is 
willing  to  give  himself  up  to  narrow  prejudices  and 
distorted  theories,  the  student  of  our  day,  whether  of 
science  or  of  literature,  must  often  consent  to  turn 
aside  from  the  paths  of  his  own  specific  department, 
and  learn  something  of  the  great  moral,  social,  and  po- 
litical movements  of  the  world  about  him.  He  has 
other  duties  than  those  of  his  own  specific  calling,  and 
he  may  not  safely  neglect  them,  nor  the  study  that 
fits  him  to  discharge  them.  There  are  other  inspira- 
tions, if  he  will  but  seek  them,  than  any  that  await 
him  in  successful  achievements  in  his  own  particular 
vocation. 

I  am  not  blind  to  the  danger  —  never  surely  greater 
than  in  our  day  —  of  spreading  our  efforts  over  too 
large  a  space,  and  so  making  all  our  acquirements 
thin  and  meagre  and  superficial ;  but  over  against  that 
danger  there  stands  another,  equally  perilous  to  many 
scientific  and  professional  men,  of  so  exclusively  con- 
centrating their  interests  upon  a  narrow  space  and  sub- 


22  Waymarks. 

ject  that  they  cease  ultimately  to  be  either  good  citizens 
or  humane  men.  The  state,  society,  the  untaught  mul- 
titudes about  us,  have  each  a  claim  upon  our  interest, 
our  energy,  and  our  regard.  We  may  not  neglect  those 
claims  without  equal  injury  to  those  who  represent 
them  and  to  ourselves.  More  than  ever,  in  these  days, 
does  each  man  among  us,  no  matter  what  the  partic- 
ular range  of  his  aims  and  inquiries,  need  to  be  also, 
a  student  of  history,  of  political  economy,  and  of  moral 
science.  When  he  has  become  so  life  will  mean  more 
to  him  than  it  has  ever  done  before,  and  he  himself 
will  sooner  or  later  rise  to  be  the  power  that  he  ought 
to  be  in  his  generation,  and  the  blessing  that  he  may 
be  to  his  kind.  Out  of  a  more  catholic  habit  of  in- 
quiry will  come  a  more  catholic  breadth  of  sympa- 
thy, and  so  the  wide-minded,  large-hearted  student  will 
learn  the  meaning  of  a  greater  toleration,  a  greater 
helpfulness,  and  a  greater  love  ! 

3.  And  this  leads  me  to  say,  finally,  that  it  behooves 
you,  my  brothers,  to  be  not  only  students,  and  catholic 
students,  but  also  reverent  students.  Those  of  you 
whose  future  will  be  concerned  principally  with  the  phy- 
sical sciences,  are  commonly  supposed  to  be  in  great  and 
imminent  danger  of  unbelief.  For  one,  I  venture  to 
account  such  a  supposition  as  often  ill-founded,  and 
oftener  still  unjust.  An  English  bishop  having  spoken 
of  Mr.  Darwin's  speculations  as  a  "  denial  of  the  crea- 
tion," and  as  "  bad  and  devilish  imaginations,"  he  was 
straightway  and  worthily  rebuked  by  more  than  one 
Christian  student  of  science,  who  showed  conclusively 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  23 

that  Darwinism  neither  denied  the  Divine  creation,  nor 
asserted  man  to  be  self-originated.  Indeed,  a  late 
writer  in  an  English  periodical  maintains  that  Darwin- 
ism strengthens  the  case  for  Christianity  against  un- 
belief ;  and  whether  we  may  choose  to  regard  him  as 
having  proved  or  failed  to  prove  his  position,  one  must 
needs  hail  with  thankfulness  the  dawning  of  a  day 
when  the  champions  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  are 
no  longer  swift  to  dub  every  new  explorer  in  science 
with  the  sweeping  stigma  of  "  infidel." 

But  while  this  is  true,  we  may  not  disguise  from  our- 
selves that  there  is  always  danger  lest  the  man  of 
science,  in  dealing  with  the  material  facts  of  Nature, 
and  tracing  second  causes,  should  forget  that  there  is  a 
great  first  Cause,  and  that  all  the  phenomena  of  physical 
life  rightly  studied,  only  argue  an  infinite  and  spirit- 
ual life,  which  forever  presides  in  and  over  them.  As 
you  go  forth,  with  such  skill  as  you  have  acquired  here, 
to  challenge  the  mysteries  of  Nature,  or  to  pursue  your 
studies  in  whatsoever  direction,  lay  aside  the  tools  and 
implements  of  your  various  callings  not  infrequently,  I 
beseech  you,  and  hearken  for  the  whispers  of  a  voice 
within  you,  which  witnesses  to  the  existence  and  sover- 
eignty of  a  Being  who  is  the  Author  of  Nature,  to  whom 
this  wondrous  and  complex  universe  of  ours  is  "  but  a 
drop  of  a  bucket,  and  who  taketh  up  the  isles  as  a  very 
little  thing."  No  telescope  has  ever  seen  Him,  and  yet 
He  waits  to  be  our  supreme  and  unerring  teacher.  In 
bidding  you  to  hearken  for  this  voice  sometimes,  I  do 
not  bid  you  be  a  whit  the  less  earnest  and  entliusiastic 


24  Waymarks, 

and  inquisitive  in  whatsoever  line  of  inquiry  you  have 
ah'eady  resolved  to  pursue.  But  remember,  there  is 
something  else  within  you  than  the  busy,  inquisitive, 
thinking  brains.  Remember  that  there  beats  beneath 
whatever  cunning  plaitings  of  custom  may  seek  to  hide 
it,  a  great,  eager,  unsatisfied,  hungry  heart.  If  in  your 
studies  you  are  willing  to  starve  that,  if  you  never  seek 
for  an  object  that  shall  teach  the  dormant  love-power  in 
you  rightly  and  worthily  to  love,  then,  believe  me,  you 
are  dooming  the  neediest  side  of  your  nature  at  once  to 
ignorance  and  starvation.  And  therefore  I  entreat  you 
supremely  to  lay  the  foundations  of  all  your  future  stud- 
ies in  a  reverent  hearkening  to  that  Being  who  is  at 
once  the  Creator  of  the  Universe  and  your  Creator,  and 
in  a  personal  discipleship  to  that  incarnate  Christ  through 
whom  supremely  He  has  revealed  Himself.  Let  every 
other  study  be  your  schoolmaster  to  bring  you  to  His 
feet  who  can  alone  solve  for  you  the  sternest  problems 
or  illumine  your  deepest  ignorance.  Knowing  Him  the 
world  will  get  a  new  aspect,  and  all  your  studies,  in 
whatsoever  domain,  a  higher  and  sacreder  meaning. 
When  the  facts  of  Nature  perplex  you,  when  the  seem- 
ing tangle  of  history  dismays  or  disheartens  you,  when 
shadowy  possibilities  of  the  future  threaten  to  over- 
whelm you,  you  will  know  that  His  hand  who  is  behind 
the  darkness  holds  the  unerring  clue,  and  that  out  of 
all  the  seeming  mysteries  of  the  present,  that  Sovereign 
Hand  shall  sooner  or  later  bring  forth  divinest  order 
and  beauty  and  sunshine  ! 

Nay,  more.     Coming  as  reverent  and  believing  stu- 


The  Priesthood  of  Science.  25 

dents  to  this  the  greatest  of  all  teachers,  Himself  at 
once  unerring  wisdom  and  infinite  compassion  and  res- 
cue, you  shall  also  find  that  as  a  pupil  and  learner  in 
His  school,  each  one  of  you  has  here  a  sacred  work  to 
do,  a  heavenly  cause  to  serve.  Not  renouncing  any  up- 
right earthly  cause  or  calling,  you  shall  yet  see  how,  in 
it  and  through  it,  you  may  be  serving  a  cause  at  once 
grander  and  nobler  and  holier,  —  the  cause  of  Christ, 
and  of  His  Redeemed  Humanity  I 

Crossing  this  mighty  continent  of  ours  not  long  ago, 
by  means  of  that  last  marvel  of  our  American  engineer- 
ing whose  daily  track-laying,  as  1  have  been  told,  was 
wont  to  beat  the  slow-moving  wagon-trains  of  emigrants 
that  marched  beside  it,  I  found  myself  again  and  again 
exclaiming,  '^  What  grander  calling  could  there  be  than 
thus  to  write  one's  name  in  iron  across  the  unsullied 
page  of  those  virgin  western  prairies,  as  part  builder  of 
the  highway  that  shall  bind  together  Pekin  and  Paris, 
London  and  San  Francisco,  the  commerce  of  Calcutta 
and  the  manufactures  of  Manchester,  in  one  bright 
zone,  whose  central  gem  shall  be  our  own  American 
metropolis !  " 

And  yet  there  is  a  grander  calling.  May  it  be  yours 
and  mine,  my  friends,  to  braid  it  in  with  whatsoever  toil 
or  study  is  ours,  whether  within  these  University  walls 
or  beyond  them  ;  to  build  those  other  highways  through 
the  stony  hearts  and  desert  lives  of  men  over  which  the 
Master  Builder  shall  at  last  come  back  again,  to  claim 
this  world  and  all  its  treasures  for  His  own ;  to  bear 


26  Waymarks. 

along  the  paths  that  Christian  labor  has  cast  up  the 
saving  message  of  God's  love,  and  so,  by  steadfast  con- 
quest of  all  sin  and  ignorance,  to  open  wide  the  gates  for 
His  enduring  sunshine ! 

"  Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  men ; 
Then  reign  the  world's  great  bridals,  chaste  and  calm ; 
Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  human  kind !  " 


II. 

THE   YOUNG   SEER. 

Your  young  men  shall  see  visions.  — Joel  ii.  23. 

In  an  old  book,  among  the  oldest  in  the  volume  that 
includes  it,  there  occur  these  words.  They  are  the 
words  of  one  who,  looking  forward  to  a  time  beyond 
his  own,  discerns  the  promise  of  a  day  of  larger  knowl- 
edge and  of  nobler  life.  Out  of  its  old  ignorance 
and  feebleness  the  Israel  of  the  future  is  to  be  lifted 
towards  the  light.  The  slumbrous  powers,  the  mean 
affections,  the  trailing  aspirations,  —  all  these  were  to 
be  touched,  awakened,  ennobled. 

Well,  as  we  know,  they  were.  The  time  came  when 
on  the  spiritual  consciousness  of  a  group  of  obscure 
peasants  there  broke  a  new  world.  Gathered  one  day 
in  that  city  which  had  been  for  generations  the  centre 
of  their  national  life,  waiting  in  expectant  silence  and 
pause,  there  came  to  them  the  vision  of  a  new  life,  a 
new  hope,  a  new  earth.  Suddenly,  and  in  a  moment 
as  it  were,  the  veil  of  old  prejudices  and  prepossessions 
fell  away  from  them,  and  all  that  they  saw  was  trans- 
figured. The  world  was  no  longer  the  same,  for  it  was 
the  home  of  a  Divine  Society  —  man  was  no  longer  the 


28  Waymarks. 

same,  for  he  was  the  child  of  a  Divine  Father  ;  and 
duty,  turned  to  privilege,  became  the  joy  of  being. 
Like  men  aflame  (drunk  with  new  wine,  the  critics  of 
their  time  declared !)  they  went  forth  from  an  upper 
room  and  conquered  as  they  went.  No  parallel  in  the 
history  of  propagandism  has  yet  been  found  to  that  of 
the  twelve  first  messengers  of  the  religion  of  the  New 
Testament.  Without  the  prestige  of  ancestry  or  eccle- 
siastical rank,  without  the  influence  of  the  powerful, 
without  wealth  or  eloquence  or  art,  they  won  their 
way  first  to  a  hearing  and  then  to  a  following  so  eager 
and  so  ardent  that  in  a  little  while  men  heralded  their 
coming  to  some  new  field  of  missionary  labor  with  the 
cry,  "  These  that  have  turned  the  world  upside  down 
are  come  hither  also ! "  And  exaggerated  as  the  words 
must  have  sounded,  they  were,  in  fact,  the  words  of 
truth  and  soberness.  It  was  a  revolutionary  force 
which  came  with  these  young  disciples  into  contact 
with  the  older  civilizations  of  their  time,  and  which, 
wherever  it  went,  "  overturned  and  overturned,"  and  so 
prepared  the  way  for  Him  whose  right  it  was  to  rule. 
Nothing  could  resist  its  power.  No  class,  nor  caste,  nor 
nation  could  deny  its  spell.  There  were  those  who 
had  seen  a  vision,  and  their  vision  had  illumined  and 
transformed  them ! 

But  to  this  remarkable  result  there  had  been  a  con- 
dition precedent.  We  own,  I  take  it,  the  force  of  that 
argument  which  in  nature  urges  that  the  existence  of 
a  faculty  implies  the  sphere  or  medium  in  which  it  is  to 
find  its  exercise.     The  construction  of  the  eye  is  itself 


The   Young  Seer.  29 

the  clearest  proof  that  somewhere  there  must  be  that 
thing  which  we  call  light,  in  which  it  finds  at  once  its 
origin  and  its  interpretation.  And,  in  the  same  way, 
we  who  are  here,  at  any  rate,  are  accustomed  to  main- 
tain the  existence  of  what  we  call  a  spiritual  faculty, 
and  to  argue  from  it  for  the  existence  of  that  spiritual 
realm  of  which  it  is  at  once  the  complement  and  the 
prophecy.  "  Like  the  peasant-poet,  Clare,  who  in  his 
childhood  set  out  from  his  father's  cottage,  in  order,"  as 
a  gifted  Englishman  has  lately  reminded  us,  "  to  touch, 
if  he  might,  the  point  where  earth  and  sky  meet,"  so, 
we  are  wont  to  say,  "  we  are  drawn  toward  far  horizons, 
clad  in  colors  of  the  air,"  by  the  impulse  and  sentiment 
w^hich  comes  from  the  Father  of  Lights. 

Yes,  but  there  is,  I  repeat,  a  condition  precedent. 
i\\  those  domains  of  knowledge  which  are  lower  than 
spiritual  knowledge,  what  is  it  which  goes  before  the 
vision,  of  whatever  nature  it  may  be  ?  I  answer,  It  is 
culture,  —  culture  which  prepares  the  way  for  the  vision, 
and  which  makes  it  at  once  possible  and  imminent.  Go 
back  to  the  illustration  of  the  eye,  and  of  that  lowest 
group  of  powers,  the  senses,  for  which  the  eye  stands. 
There  died,  the  other  day,  in  our  own  Cambridge,  a 
man  who  on  its  mechanical  side  had  done  almost  as 
much,  perhaps,  to  advance  the  science  of  astronomy  as 
any  one  of  his  generation.  His  telescopes  were  the 
wonder  of  the  curious,  and  the  matchless  treasures  of 
the  learned  and  expert.  Two  hemispheres  paid  tribute 
to  his  skill,  and  his  handiwork  found  recognition  in  the 
foremost   observatories  of   the   world.     Do   you    know, 


30  Wat/marks. 

now,  how  he  finished  those  marvellous  lenses  which, 
beforehand,  it  was  declared,  were  beyond  the  possibil- 
ities of  constructive  skill  ?  He  was  indeed  familiar  with 
the  scientific  technique  of  his  calling ;  but  I  have  been 
told  that  it  was  not  alone  by  the  nice  measurement  of 
any  instrument,  however  delicate  or  minutely  accurate, 
that  he  achieved  his  result,  but  by  the  marvellous  accu- 
racy of  his  eye  and  marvellous  delicacy  of  his  touch. 

But  were  either  of  these  aptitudes  born  in  him  ? 
Their  germs  undoubtedly  were;  but,  just  as  surely, 
their  ultimate  perfection  was  the  result  of  a  long  course 
of  training  and  development,  —  of  that  thing,  in  other 
words,  which  we  call  culture.  And,  whatever  the  na- 
tive faculty,  gift,  endowment,  this  is  the  invariable  con- 
dition of  its  highest  exercise,  and,  ordinarily,  of  its 
successful  exercise  at  all. 

In  fact,  it  is  this  which  explains  our  presence  here 
to-day.  Unlike  most  institutions,  this  University  owes 
its  existence  under  God  to  one  man.  He  was  one 
who,  both  by  what  he  was  and  by  what  he  achieved, 
revealed  himself  as  the  possessor  of  exceptional  pow- 
ers. The  history  of  this  region,  in  which  his  wise 
forecast,  his  large  grasp,  his  courage,  resolution,  and 
eminent  capacity  of  organization  and  administration 
found  their  fitting  opportunity,  is  a  record,  in  the  de- 
velopment of  its  vast  resources  and  in  the  extension 
of  its  great  arteries  of  traffic  and  travel,  of  his  pre- 
eminent gifts.  But  great  as  those  gifts  were,  and 
conspicuous  as  was  the  success  which  they  achieved, 
their    possessor    was    above    the    petty    vanity    which 


The   Young  Seer.  31 

imagined  that  they  could  not  have  been  bettered  by  a 
previous  and  adequate  culture.  On  the  contrary,  as  the 
bishop  of  this  diocese  said  of  him  on  the  first  "Foun- 
der's Day,"  "  he  had  met  many  occasions  on  which  he 
would  have  found  great  advantage  if  to  his  practical 
skill  he  could  have  added  that  scientific  knowledge  of 
metallurgy,  mining,  and  civil  engineering  which  is  now 
freely  imparted  in  this  University."  ^  And  it  was  the 
recognition  of  this  fact  which  inspired  him  to  undertake 
the  noble  enterprise  which  we  assemble  to  promote  to- 
day. His  keen  discernment  recognized  that,  vigorous 
and  adroit  as  may  be  a  human  hand  by  native  endow- 
ment, both  vigor  and  skill  are  developable  qualities, 
with  a  capacity  of  enlargement  almost  indefinite. 

And  so  of  whatever  else  the  human  hand  may  stand 
for.  Whether  it  be  the  ear  of  the  musician  or  the 
brain  of  the  philosopher,  just  in  so  far  as  you  can  add 
to  the  original  gift  the  skill,  the  delicacy,  the  trained 
discrimination,  which  come  witli  culture,  by  so  much 
you  have  greatened  that  gift.  The  eye  of  the  artist  and 
the  eye  of  the  peasant  are  as  similar  in  construction 
as  any  human  eyes  can  be.  But  tlie  vision  which  they 
see  is  as  different  as  chaos  from  Eden,  or  light  from 
darkness.  Indeed,  the  capacity  to  see  any  vision  of 
beauty  or  nobleness  at  all  is  largely  conditioned  upon 
the  training  which  has  bestowed  it. 

And  even  so  it  was  with  those  who  one  day  saw  their 
vision,  as  they  waited  in  an  upper  room.  We  are  ac- 
customed   to    speak    of    tlie    founders    of    Christianity 

1  Memorial  discourse  of  Rt.  Rev.  M   A.  De Wolfe  Howe,  D.  D.,  1879. 


32  Waymarks. 

(though  from  a  different  motive)  as  their  earliest  and 
least  friendly  critics  spoke  of  them,  as  ignorant  and  un- 
learned men.  But,  in  fact,  theirs  was  a  culture  the 
like  of  which  the  world  has  never  known.  It  was  their 
high  privilege  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  a  Teacher  whose  peer 
humanity  has  not  seen.  Says  Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  European  Morals  :  "  "  It  has  been  reserved  for 
Christianity  to  present  to  the  world  an  ideal  character, 
which,  through  all  the  changes  of  eighteen  centuries, 
has  filled  the  hearts  of  men  with  an  impassioned  love ; 
has  shown  itself  capable  of  acting  on  all  ages,  nations, 
temperaments,  and  conditions ;  has  not  only  been  the 
highest  pattern  of  virtue,  but  the  highest  incentive  to 
its  practice,  and  has  exercised  so  deep  an  influence 
that  it  may  truly  be  said  that  the  simple  record  of  three 
short  years  of  active  life  has  done  more  to  regenerate 
.  .  .  mankind  than  all  the  disquisitions  of  philoso- 
phers and  all  the  exhortations  of  moralists." 

But  these  three  years  of  active  life  were  spent  in  the 
close  and  constant  companionship  of  twelve  men,  whose 
whole  future  w^as  revolutionized  by  the  contact  which 
fchat  companionship  involved.  Consider  for  a  moment 
the  enlargement  of  powers  which  came  to  these  men 
from  daily  contact  with  their  Master.  We  know  how 
blind  and  narrow  and  unspiritual  they  were  in  the  first 
days  of  their  discipleship.  But  that  which  came  to  pass 
with  two  of  them  when,  after  that  post-resurrection 
meeting  on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  their  eyes  were  opened 
and  they  knew  Him,  their  Lord,  happened  to  all  the 
rest.     The    shrunken    hearts   were    somehow    deepened 


The   Young  Seer.  33 

and  enlarged.  The  stifled  aspiration  took  to  itself  wings 
and  soared,  and  thus  they  became  men  of  power.  It 
was  not  the  vision  alone,  but  it  was  culture,  training, 
nurture,  preparing  the  way  for  the  vision. 

We,  in  this  age,  are  not  in  any  very  imminent  danger 
of  underestimating  this  truth  in  its  relation  to  our  intel- 
lectual and  physical  life.  Inventive  genius  and  scien- 
tific cunning  have  united  their  forces  in  order  to  give  to 
man  the  highest  possible  development  of  his  powers  and 
the  most  adequate  training  of  his  gifts.  In  every  de- 
partment of  inquiry  the  native  faculty  finds  itself  supple- 
mented by  tools  and  a  nurture  which  daily  grow  more 
various  and  many-sided.  Our  educational  systems  for 
our  poorest  are  ampler  in  their  resources  than  those 
which  wealth  could  command  a  century  ago  for  the  rich. 
That  no  gift  is  to  be  left  to  its  original  limitations  of  ca- 
pacity, that  every  sense,  taste,  intellectual  power  and 
endowment  is  to  be  enriched  by  a  nurture  which  begins  in 
infancy  and  endures  with  conscious  existence,  this  has 
come  to  be,  at  any  rate,  the  ideal  conception  of  education. 

3nt  with  what  powers  shall  this  culture  mainly  deal, 
and  what  faculties  shall  it  develop  ?  We  have  a  new 
philosophy  of  the  culture  of  the  body,  or  rather  it  may 
be  more  accurately  called  the  revival  of  an  old  phil- 
osophy, which  tells  us,  in  tones  which  are  daily  more 
imperious  and  more  aggressive,  that  the  culture  of  our 
forefathers  was  narrow  and  meagre  and  one-sided,  — 
that  it  made  no  provision,  or  no  due  provision,  for  the 
development  of  the  biceps  muscle  and  the  true  ennoble- 
ment of  one's  flexors  and  extensors.     So  loud  and  domi- 

3 


34  Waymarks, 

nant  has  this  philosophy  become  that  venerable  colle- 
giate dignitaries  are  to  be  seen  on  every  hand  standing 
cap  in  hand  and  saying  to  their  pupils :  "  Yes,  young 
gentlemen,  undoubtedly  your  conception  of  culture  is  the 
true  one.  The  divinest  thing  on  earth,  or  almost  the 
divinest,  is  a  foot-ball,  a  tennis  racket,  or  a  cricket-bat. 
Give  yourself  largely  if  not  wholly  to  these  things,  and 
then  graciously  vouchsafe  to  us  tlie  fragments  of  your 
time  for  such  other  education  as  you  may  condescend  to 
submit  to.  Greatness  is  in  bulk  and  your  body  is  the 
biggest  part  of  you  !  " 

Let  no  one  assume  that  because  some  of  us  think  that 
that  culture  which  is  physical  has  too  large  a  share  in 
the  modern  curriculum  of  collegiate  training,  it  should 
have  none  at  all,  or  that  its  advantages  are  not  consider- 
able though  they  may  not  be  pre-eminent.  "  Mens 
sana^^  and  the  rest  of  it  is  excellent  doctrine  at  all 
times,  and  it  only  becomes  sophistical  when  it  is  fool- 
ishly exaggerated.  1  am  not,  indeed,  sure  that  it  might 
not  be  well  to  substitute  for  at  least  a  part  of  it  a  culture 
of  manners,  which,  while  it  cannot  be  purely  physical, 
might  wisely  be  encouraged  if  only  for  the  amelioration 
of  that  undergraduate  savagery  which  threatens  to  bring 
back  upon  us  an  era  of  barbarism  under  the  disguise  of 
"  sport.  "  What  I  am  contending  for  now,  however,  is 
something  of  larger  consequence  and  far  loftier  concern 
than  manners.  By  all  means  let  us  have  the  culture  of 
the  body  as  well  as  of  the  mind.  Let  us  train  young 
men  to  respect  the  instrument  as  well  as  that  of  which  it 
is  to  be  the  instrument.     But  that  of  which  the  body  is 


The   Young  Seer.  35 

ordained  to  be  the  instrument  is  not  alone  the  instinct 
of  pleasure,  nor  merely  the  intellect  or  the  powers  that 
tliinlv.  Enthroned  above  these,  and  reaching  out  to 
reo-ions    on   the   threshold  of   which   mere   intellio'ence 

o  o 

stands  in  questioning  silence,  simply  because  it  can  go 
no  further,  there  is  another  faculty,  another  range  of 
powers  which  speak  to  the  aspirations  of  nobleness, 
which  speak  to  the  conscience  of  duty,  which  speak  to 
the  soul  of  God.  The  culture  of  the  body  and  of  the 
brain  may  quicken  the  reason  and  enlarge  the  mind  ;  it 
may  refine  the  senses  and  the  tastes  ;  it  may  greaten  that 
wdiich  thinks  in  vigor  and  acuteness,  —  but  what  of  the 
moral  nature  ?  "  In  the  most  brilliant  period  of  Athen- 
ian greatness,"  as  a  gifted  Englishman  has  lately  de- 
scribed it,^  when  art  had  reached  its  acme  of  noble 
simplicity,  when  poetry  and  oratory  shed  over  the  public 
life  a  glowing  atmosphere  of  grace  and  beauty,  when  in- 
tellects unrivalled  in  force  and  subtlety  discussed  ques- 
tions which  men  are  debating  still, —  evils  which  are  not 
so  much  as  named  among  ourselves  were  'sapping  the 
very  foundations  of  moral  order,  and  were  made  by  men 
whose  own  personal  purity  is  above  suspicion  the  subject 
of  jest  and  witticism.  And  other  ages,  splendid  in  art, 
bright  with  intellectual  achievement,  —  in  Rome,  the  age 
of  Augustus ;  in  Italy,  the  age  of  the  Medici  and  of  Leo 
the  Tenth  ;  in  France,  the  age  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth, 
—  these  too  have  been  ages  of  a  culture  which  was  quite 
compatible  with  heartless  frivolity  and  with  "  rank  cor- 
ruption ruining  all  within. " 

^  St.  Paul  at  Athens  :   Chas.   Shakespere,  p.  38. 


36  Wayinarks, 

Or,  to  come  a  little  nearer  home,  are  we  quite  sure 
that  in  our  own  country  and  in  our  own  day  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  understanding,  combined  though  it  be  with 
the  cultivation  of  taste,  may  safely  supersede  the  faith 
and  the  culture  of  the  soul  ?  Says  a  witness  whose  par- 
tiality for  the  spiritual  powers  of  man  is  certainly  not 
extravagant  —  1  mean  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  :  "  The  be- 
lief in  the  moralizing  effects  of  intellectual  culture  is 
flatly  co7itradicted  by  facts.  Are  not  fraudulent  bank- 
rupts educated  people,  and  getters-up  of  bubble  com- 
panies, and  devisers  of  corners  [and  syndicates  of  opera- 
tors, he  might  have  added],  and  makers  of  adulterated 
goods,  and  users  of  false  trade-marks,  and  retailers  who 
have  light  weights,  and  owners  of  unseaworthy  ships, 
and  those  who  cheat  insurance  companies,  and  those  who 
carry  on  turf  chicaneries,  and  the  great  majority  of  gam- 
blers ?  Or,  to  take  a  more  extreme  form  of  turpitude,  is 
there  not  among  those  who  have  committed  murder  by 
poison  within  our  memories  a  considerable  number  of 
the  educated,  —  a  number  bearing  as  large  a  ratio  to  the 
educated  as  does  the  total  number  of  murderers  to  the 
population  ?"  1 

Mr.  Spencer's  illustration  may  be  extreme,  but  it  is 
his,  not  mine  ;  and  it  is  certainly  of  value  in  view  of  its 
source. 

But  be  its  value  great  or  small,  there  is  little  room 
for  controversy  concerning  the  fact  for  which  it  stands. 
No  nation  in  the  world  believes  so  profoundly  in  the 
popularization  of  mental   culture   as   our  own,  and   no 

1  The  Study  of  Sociology,  p.  363,  Eug.  ed. 


The   Young  Seer.  37 

people  has  provided  for  it  with  such  princely  liberality. 
To  give  to  everybody  who  wants  it,  not  only  the  rudi- 
ments of  an  education,  but  to  make  the  training  of 
youth  include  the  higher  accomplishments  as  well  as 
elementary  instruction,  — this  is  the  ambition  of  a  popu- 
lar system  of  intellectual  culture  whose  reach  and  range 
we  claim  to  be  the  glory  of  our  American  republic.  1 
may  not  discuss  that  system  here,  nor  review  its  influ- 
ence for  good  or  evil  upon  our  social  and  domestic  life. 
But  this  at  least  may  be  said,  that  it  does  not  concern 
itself  greatly,  if  at  all,  with  the  powers  in  man  which 
are  the  highest,  and  that  it  offers  little  or  nothing  to 
quicken  his  nobler  aspirations  or  to  satisfy  his  deepest 
longings.  With  this  culture  the  aim  of  life  is  to  teach 
men  how  to  "  get  on,"  and  to  brighten  existence  with  en- 
joyment. But  it  does  not  take  a  great  while  to  discover 
that  success  is  not  satisfaction,  and  that  in  the  matter  of 
one's  inmost  consciousness  pleasure  and  peace  are  not 
synonymous  terms.  There  comes  a  time  with  every 
earnest  soul  when  it  is  filled  with  a  profound  dissatis- 
faction, and  when  the  youthful  powers  and  the  fresh  en- 
thusiasm long  for  a  nobler  field  and  a  loftier  range  of 
action.  I  appeal  to  the  young  men  who  are  here  before 
me  to-day.  Is  it  not  true,  my  brothers,  that  there  are 
times  when  you  turn  from  the  ordinary  course  of  your 
studies  and  your  amusements  with  a  discontent  that  is 
not  born  of  failure,  and  a  weariness  that  is  not  mere 
satiety  ?  Is  it  not  true  that  there  are  times  when  some- 
thing within  you  cries  aloud  to  be  ennobled,  and  longs 
for  a  voice  of  command  ?     Sitting  alone,  when  the  day 


38  Waymarhs 

is  done,  and  the  busy  round  of  tasks  and  amusements 
ceases  its  noisy  hum,  —  when,  like  a  garment,  the  pres- 
sure of  things  outward  falls  away  from  you  and  leaves 
the  soul  alone,  —  are  there  not  moments  when  a  A^oice 
within  you  cries  :  ''  Is  this  the  whole  of  life  ?  Is  there 
not  somewhere  something,  nay,  some  One,  with  touch 
compelling  and  with  voice  resistless,  who  can  bid  me 
rise  up  out  of  my  meaner  self  and  be  a  hero  for  the 
right  ?  Oh  for  a  cause  so  noble  and  a  leader  so  sub- 
lime  that,  forgetful  of  myself,  I  might  go  after  him,  — 
seeing  in  such  an  one  the  incarnation  of  my  highest 
ideal,  and  trusting  him  so  utterly  that  any  cost  or  sacri- 
fice incurred  in  following  him  would  only  be  a  joy ! "  Ah, 
believe  me,  my  brothers,  this  inmost  hunger  of  the  heart 
is  not  without  the  bread  that  was  meant  to  satisfy  it. 
Over  against  our  soul's  cry  for  the  vision  of  a  Divine 
Master  there  stands  the  form  of  Him  who  has  come  to 
make  us  see  that  vision. 

And  this  is  the  meaning  and  office  of  that  sanctuary 
which  we  consecrate  to-day.  Not  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  any  mere  conventionalism,  however  vener- 
able ;  not  to  erect  a  tribune  where  any  merely  human 
eloquence,  however  commanding,  may  display  itself ; 
not  to  recognize  what  some  one  has  called  the  "  value 
of  the  religious  sentiment  as  a  conservator  of  social 
order,"  but  to  make  a  place  for  the  vision  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  Him  crucified,  in  His  Church,  in  His  Word, 
in  His  Sacraments,  —  for  this,  unless  1  have  mistaken 
utterly  the  aim  of  that  beneficence  which  has  been 
busy  here,  has  tliis  building  been  reared.     "  Your  young 


The   Young  Seer.  39 

men  shall  see  visions."  Yes,  and  the  one  vision  of 
all  others  which  beholding  they  shall  find  themselves 
transformed  and  ennobled  by  the  sight,  is  the  vision  of 
that  Divine  Nazarene  who  loved  us  and  gave  Himself 
for  us,  and  ''  whose  pierced  hand,"  as  Jean  Paul  wrote 
of  it,  "  has  turned  the  gates  of  centuries  on  their  hinges, 
and  opened  to  us  the  pathway  of  an  immortal  life." 
But  to  see  such  a  vision,  nay  any  vision,  w^e  must  make 
a  place  for  it.  Crowding  our  life  full  all  the  time  of 
tasks  and  pleasures,  there  is  no  room  for  Him  to  draw 
near  w^ho  will  not  strive  nor  cry.  Do  men  ask  of  us, 
"  What  need  is  there  in  this  spiritual  religion  of  yours, 
as  you  proclaim  it,  for  visible  temples  and  outward 
ordinances  and  audible  worship  ? "  Precisely,  I  answer, 
that  need,  only  infinitely  higher  in  its  degree,  that 
there  is  for  something  visible,  something  tangible,  some- 
thing audible  which  shall  express  domestic  love,  and 
social  beneficence,  and  civic  loyalty,  or  national  patriot- 
ism. These  are  spiritual  things,  but  we  take  care  to 
house  them  fitly  and  to  build  our  thoughts  of  them  into 
grand  and  stately  fabrics.  And  is  the  religion  of  an 
incarnate  Christ  to  have  no  visible  incarnation  in  the 
sanctuaries  that  shall  proclaim  it  ?  For  myself  I  am 
constrained  to  say  that  the  poverty  and  meagreness 
with  which  thus  far  we  have  builded  in  this  land  for 
God  is  not  a  thing  to  be  proud  of.  When  the  people 
lived  in  cabins  it  was  not  incongruous  that  they  should 
worship  God  in  a  barn.  But  our  great  cities  are  be- 
coming cities  of  palaces,  and  our  marts  of  trade  are 
adorned  with    costliest   splendor,  while    as   a  rule  our 


40  Waymarks. 

sanctuaries  are  cheap  and,  though  sometimes  preten- 
tious, and  often  tawdry,  not  solid,  not  real,  not  rich,  — 
in  one  word,  not  our  best.  I  am  told  by  those  who 
know,  that  the  costliest  building  for  its  size  on  this 
continent  is  a  building  for  insuring  men's  lives.  The 
satire,  if  the  fact  be  so,  which  it  suggests  is  too  obvious 
to  need  amplification  here.  There  is  a  life,  and  there 
is  a  full  assurance  of  that  life,  which  One  alone  can 
give.  What  ought  to  be  the  temple  which  we  rear  for 
such  a  Being,  and  for  the  disclosure  of  such  a  vision  ! 
Surely,  no  mean  and  starved  abiding-place  befits  the 
King  of  Glory. 

And  so  we  may  well  bless  God  for  the  unstinted 
love  and  reverence  for  His  honor  which  have  reared 
this  house,  and  for  her  whose  heart  was  moved  to  build 
it.  The  filial  gratitude,  the  sisterly  devotion  which 
have  here  expressed  themselves  have  surely  chosen 
wisely  in  erecting  such  a  monument  to  loved  ones  now 
departed.  And  that  which  lends,  I  think  you  will 
agree  with  me,  an  especial  charm  to  the  gift  which  is 
this  day  made  to  God  and  to  this  University,  is  that 
it  is  a  gift,  for  the  highest  good  of  young  men,  from 
a  woman ;  and  that  even  as  a  woman  was  honored  and 
forever  ennobled  in  giving  to  the  race  the  Saviour 
whom  we  worship  here,  so  a  daughter  of  our  Israel 
opens  to  her  young  brothers  within  these  courts  a 
place  of  access  to  His  presence. 

May  those  for  whom  this  holy  house  is  builded  often 
turn  their  steps  this  way  !  May  they  find  within  these 
walls,  in  psalm  and  sacrament  and  sermon,  that  en- 


The   Young  Seer.  41 

iiobling  culture  which  shall  strengthen  and  upbuild 
their  souls !  May  they  make  a  place  in  each  day's  life 
for  this  divinest  nurture !  And  approaching  here,  in 
reverence  and  awe,  may  there  come  forth  the  quicken- 
ing vision  of  their  Lord,  until,  with  those  foretold  of 
old,  they  too  shall  cry,  "  Lo !  this  is  our  God,  we  have 
waited  for  Him  and  He  will  save  us  ;  this  is  the  Lord, 
we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  His  Salvation." 


A  DEAD   PRESIDENT. 

Citizens  of  tlie  Republic  who  lived  througti  the  summer  of 
A.  D.  1881  will  never  forget  it.  Ushered  in  by  a  traged}' 
whose  horror  and  shame  made  men  everywhere  in  the  land 
to  bow  their  heads,  it  was  a  season  of  anxious  watching 
which  gathered  a  whole  people  about  a  single  couch.  On 
the  2d  day  of  July  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
James  Abraham  Garfield,  while  leaving  the  national  capital 
on  his  way  to  a  distant  city,  w^as  shot  down  in  the  railway 
station  by  an  assassin  who  had  concealed  himself  in  a 
waiting-room  through  which  it  was  known  the  President 
would  pass,  for  that  purpose.  The  wound  which  the  Presi- 
dent received  was  fatal,  but  not  immediately  so.  On  the 
contrary,  he  lingered  for  several  weeks,  endured  a  journey  to 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  as  his  symptoms  alternated  from  day^ 
to  day  filled  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  with  alternate 
hope  and  dismay.  Never  was  there  witnessed  in  the  history 
of  a  great  people  a  more  suggestive  or  pathetic  spectacle.  A 
whole  nation  was  moved  by  one  thought,  and  touched  by  one 
loyal  and  tender  aspiration.  Amid  all  the  passionate  ex- 
pressions of  outraged  national  dignity  and  horror, — for, 
men  everywhere  felt  the  keen  shame  of  the  taunt,  not 
unnaturally  provoked  by  the  humiliating  fact  that  within 
sixteen  years  two  Presidents  of  the  republic  had  been 
assassinated,  which  monarchical  peoples  flung  across  the 
sea,  that  apparently  our  freer  form  of  government  was  no  less 
unstable  and  volcanic  than  their  own, — amid  all  the  angry 
resentment  at  the  crazy  political  fanatic,    if  he  was  a  polit- 


A  Bead  President.  43 

ieal  fanatic,  who  had  wrought  the  cruel  butchery,  there 
throbbed  a  deep  undercurrent  of  steadily  broadening  sympa- 
thy, which  prayed,  and  hoped,  and  waited,  with  eager  and 
passionated  steadfastness. 

It  prayed  and  hoped  in  vain.      When  at  length  the  end 
came,   it  was  seen  how  certain  it  had  been  from  the  begin- 
ning.    But  meanwhile  the  nation  had  been  educated,  first, 
in  a  fine  and  just  appreciation  of  its  suffering  mart^'^r,  and 
then  in  that  habit  of  patient  submission  of  which  he  himself 
was  so  rare  and  noble  an  illustration.     When  Garfield  died 
the  Civil  War  had  been  ended  nearly  twenty  years.     But  it 
remained  for  a  President  chosen  by  that  party  with  which 
the  vanquished  South  was  least  in  sympathy  to  do  more  in 
bringing  into  touch  the  parted  hearts  of  the  people  of  the 
two  sections  than  anything  which  had  haj)pened   since  the 
day  of  Lee's  surrender.     The  assassination  of  Lincoln  fol- 
lowed too  close  upon  the  defeat  of  the  Confederacy  for  that. 
The  passions  engendered  by  the  war  were  too  deep  to  allow 
the  horror  of  that  calamity  to  be  looked  at  with  other  than 
large  indifference  bj^  multitudes  of  his  fellow-countrj^men. 
But  with  Garfield  it  was  different.     His  rare  personal  char- 
acteristics, his  conspicuous  magnanimit}'  in  the  treatment  of 
those  hostile  to  him,  his  manly  resignation  in  the  face  of  his 
bitter  fate,  — these  won  to  him  the  farthest  as  well  as  the 
nearest,   and  made  the  closing  days  of  his  life  memorable 
in  their  record  not  alone  of  heroic  suffering,  but  of  a  beau- 
tiful and  fraternal  sympathy, — a  sj-mpathy  which   rang  at 
the  slightest  touch   like   the   tense   strings   of  a  liarp,    and 
which  revealed  the  great  soul  of  a  great  people  as  quivering 
behind  it.     The  two  sermons  which  follow  were  preached, 
the    first    on    the    Prayer  Day  for   the    stricken    President, 
Sept.  11,   1881,  and  the  other  on  the  Sunday  following  his 
death,   Sept.  25,   1881. 


III. 

A   NATION'S   PRAYERS. 

He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  He  not  hear  ?  or  He  that  made 
the  eye,  shall  He  not  see?  —  Psalm  xciv.  9  (Psalter). 

There  are  two  ideas  of  God,  which  are  held  to-day  by 
thinking  men  of  different  minds,  with  equal  sincerity 
and  tenacity. 

The  one  regards  Him  as  a  force  or  power  behind 
nature,  in  which  it  takes  its  rise  or  finds  its  origin. 
The  school  which  admits  nothing  that  it  cannot  demon-, 
strate  has  not  thus  far,  if  we  are  to  believe  its  most 
candid  teachers,  succeeded  in  demonstrating  that  life  is 
self-evolved  ;  and  since  this  cannot  be  demonstrated,  it  is 
not  unwilling  to  admit  that  there  may  be,  somewhere, 
some  force  which,  for  want  of  a  better  name,  may  be 
called  God,  and  in  which  man  as  we  know  him,  and 
things  as  we  see  them,  take  their  rise.  But  the  most 
that  it  is  willing  to  admit  concerning  this  force  or 
power  is  that  it  is  a  force  or  power  that  "  makes  for 
righteousness,"  —  an  influence,  a  tendency,  a  law  if  you 
please,  the  result  of  whose  operations  is  in  the  direc- 
tion of  good  rather  than  evil.  That  this  influence,  or 
tendency,  or  force,  is  a  Personal  Being,  —  that  it  is  af- 
fected by  our  appeals  to  it,  that  it  hears  a  request  which 


A  Nation's  Prayers.  45 

we  make  to  it,  or  answers  what  we  call  our  prayers,  — 
this  it  explicitly  denies. 

And  it  does  so  for  two  reasons  :  first,  that  if  God  be 
such  a  Being  as  it  understands  Him  to  be.  He  cannot 
answer  prayer;  and  then, that  as  a  matter  of  experience, 
He  does  not.  If,  in  other  words,  God  be  simply  another 
name  for  law,  then  it  is  not  of  the  nature  of  law  to 
operate  by  mere  caprice.  But  that  would  be  caprice, 
and  not  law,  which  should  effect  one  thing  to-day  from 
its  own  impulse,  and  another  to-morrow  because  some- 
body asked  it  to.  In  fact,  however,  this  impersonal 
theory  of  God  is  best  of  all  demonstrated  (its  disciples 
maintain)  by  experience,  since  experience  furnishes  no 
consistent  argument  for  believing  in  a  personal  God  who 
hears  and  answers  prayer.  Observe  that  the  phrase  is 
'•  no  consistent  argument ;  "  since  the  disciple  of  an  im- 
personal force  or  power,  as  being  all  that  we  know  as 
God,  does  not  deny  that  there  are  coincidences  between 
men's  prayers  and  subsequent  events,  such  as  look  like 
an  answer,  on  the  part  of  the  Being  to  whom  those 
prayers  were  addressed,  to  their  requests.  But  these  he 
explains  by  maintaining  that  they  are  no  more  than 
coincidences,  and  that  they  are  offset  by  innumerable 
instances  where  prayer  has  been  persistently  and  utterly 
disregarded.  Ships  have  gone  down  in  mid-ocean,  and 
men  have  cried  to  God  for  succor  as  they  never  cried 
before.  But,  as  with  the  priests  of  Baal,  crying  for 
hours  together  to  their  God,  "  0  Baal,  hear  us  I  "  so 
here,  there  was  "  no  voice,  nor  any  that  answered,  nor 
any  that  regarded."     Good  men  have  pi-ayed,  and  prayed 


46  Waymarks. 

for  reasonable  things.  A  parent  has  asked  for  his  boy, 
not  wealth,  nor  eminence,  nor  cleverness,  but  only  a 
sanctified  character,  and  has  seen  him  go  down,  smitten 
and  accursed,  into  a  drunkard's  grave.  A  widow  has 
cried  to  heaven,  not  for  ease  or  luxury,  but  only  for  her 
daily  bread,  and  has  been  hastened  to  a  premature  grave 
by  the  employer  who  starved  and  robbed,  because  he 
could  not  corrupt  her.  The  heavens  have  seemed  as 
brass  to  sufferers  who  lifted  thitherward  their  prayer 
and  have  seemed  to  get  no  answer  back.  "  Let  us  have 
done,  then,"  says  the  student  of  all  these  things,  "  with 
your  dogma  of  a  personal  God,  and  most  of  all  with  the 
notion  that  He  does  anything  in  this  world  because  any 
man  or  woman  asks  Him  to." 

And  yet,  that  other  school  to  which  I  began  by  refer- 
ring will  not  have  done  with  such  a  notion,  nor  refrain 
from  acting  upon  it.  There  are  hours  in  every  one's 
life  when  prayer  seems  almost  a  mockery,  and  God 
almost  a  myth.  And  at  such  times  the  arguments 
against  both  which  I  have  referred  to  seem  potent,  if 
not  conclusive.  But  there  are  other  hours  and  other 
eras,  when  the  conviction  of  a  man  or  a  nation  is  a  very 
different  one.  And  this  is  not  because  at  such  a  time 
one  can  tabulate  statistics  which  demonstrate  God's  dis- 
position to  be  influenced  by  men's  prayers,  nor  because 
the  difficulty  of  answering  a  great  many  prayers  in  the 
way  that  a  great  many  people  expect  them  to  be  an- 
swered is  not  seen  and  recognized.  But  at  such  times 
such  persons*  remember  this  :  that  if  it  be  granted  that 
man  is  a  creature  of  imperfect  knowledge,  —  that  he  is 


A  Nation  s  Prayers.  47 

apt  to  want  a  great  many  things  tliat  are  not  good  for 
him,  and  that  he  is  apt  to  want  things  that  are  good  for 
him  selfishly,  and  without  regard  to  the  welfare  of  other 
people,  —  If  it  be  still  further  true  that,  in  the  case  of  a 
child  who  comes  with  his  petition  to  you,  you  serve  him 
best,  oftentimes,  by  denying,  rather  than  by  granting  his 
request,  then,  certainly,  nothing  is  proved  as  against 
prayer  by  insisting  that  in  certain  emergencies  certain 
requests  were  denied  instead  of  being  granted.  Said  a 
missionary  bishop  once,  "  Soon  after  1  went  to  my  mis- 
sionary jurisdiction,  1  wanted  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
with  which  to  build  five  cheap  churches  in  as  many 
growing  towns.  Oh,  how  1  prayed  and  prayed  for  it, 
but,  thank  God,  it  never  came  I  Yes,  thank  God  ;  for 
in  six  months  the  population  of  these  five  mining  towns 
had  moved  away,  and  then  I  saw  that  if  I  had  had  it  the 
money  would  have  been  simply  wasted  by  me,  and  that 
God  knew  better  than  1  did." 

And  in  that  plain  and  homely  sentence  there  is  the 
essence  of  the  whole  matter.  "  God  knew  better"  than 
the  bishop  did.  Do  you  suppose  he  stopped  praying, 
this  missionary  bishop,  because  lie  did  not  get  his 
twenty  thousand  dollars  ?  No,  his  faith  went  down  a 
great  deal  deeper  than  that !  He  believed  first  that  God 
knew,  —  that  is,  that  He  took  account  of  what  His  ser- 
vant was  doing  for  His  truth  out  in  those  mining  towns, 
and  was  interested  in  it.  And  it  is  that  conviction,  far 
more  than  any  visible  or  particular  answer  to  prayer, 
which  has  been  the  spring  of  it  ever  since  the  world 
began.     There  are  men,  as  J  have  said,  who  believe  that 


48  Waymarks. 

God  is  a  mere  force,  or  law,  or  soulless  tendency.  But 
there  are  other  men  who  believe  that  He  is  a  living 
Father,  and  the  strongest  argument  for  that  faith  they 
find,  after  all,  in  themselves.  There  is  no  more  mag- 
nificent statement  of  that  argument  than  we  find  in  the 
94th  Psalm.  It  was  written  in  a  time  of  cruel  oppres- 
sion, when  wickedness  stalked  unabashed  in  high  places, 
and  when  the  earlier  fear  of  God  had  died  out  from  the 
breasts  of  even  the  rulers  of  Israel  themselves.  There 
were  men  who  ought  to  have  protected  the  weak,  who 
used  their  power  to  outrage  them.  And  so  David  cries 
out,  telling  up  this  infamy  to  God,  "  They  smite  down 
thy  people,  0  Lord,  and  trouble  thine  heritage.  They 
murder  the  widow  and  the  stranger,  and  put  the  father- 
less to  death.  And  yet  they  say, '  Tush,  the  Lord  shall 
not  see,  neither  shall  the  God  of  Jacob  regard  it.'  " 
And  then  comes  that  swift  reply,  which,  as  Herder  has 
said,  is  as  pertinent  to  the  faithless  philosophy  of  our 
own  day  as  of  David's  day,  "  0  ye  fools,  when  will  ye 
understand?  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  He  not 
hear  ?  and  He  that  made  the  eye,  shall  He  not  see  ? " 
You  have  in  yourselves  a  power  that  sees  and  hears. 
Where  did  you  get  it  ?  What  does  it  imply,  if  not  that, 
somewhere,  there  is  One  who  hears  with  an  unerring 
ear,  and  sees  with  an  all-searching  eye  ?  Be  sure  that 
whatever  comes  to  pass  here  in  the  world,  there, is  one 
Being  who  sees  and  knows  it  all,  and  w^ho  is  no  indiffer- 
ent spectator  of  the  wrongs  and  sorrows  of  His  children. 
Do  not  forget  Him,  or  leave  him  out  of  account ;  but 
rather  remind  yourself  how  your  own  nature  is  at  once 


A  Nation's  Prayers.  49 

the  image  and  witness  of  His.  You  see  and  hear.  Be 
sure  that  He,  whose  child  you  are,  sees  and  hears  you  I 

It  is  that  larger  truth  which  is  implied  in  these  words 
of  David  of  which  we  have  lately  been  having  such 
interesting  evidence  in  connection  with  our  stricken  and 
suffering  President.  A  great  calamity,  with  elements 
in  it  which  furnish  motives  for  abundant  self-scrutiny 
and  mortification,  has  brought  this  people  to  its  knees 
with  an  earnestness  and  unanimity  which  are  wholly 
without  a  parallel.  These  last  seventy  days  have  been 
an  era  of  tender  sympathy  and  earnest  prayer,  which 
will  always  be  memorable  and  precious.  And  both 
these  characteristics  are  to  me  an  evidence  for  the  be- 
ing  and  character  of  Him  who,  as  I  am  profoundly 
persuaded,  has  inspired  them. 

1.  Look,  for  instance,  at  the  tokens  of  universal 
sympathy.  I  do  not  know  how  it  may  have  been  with 
most  of  us,  but  I  think  there  is  more  than  one  here 
who  must  own  that  he  could  hardly  read  that  story  of 
the  journey  of  the  President  from  the  capital  to  the 
seaside  without  a  sob  in  the  voice  and  a  mist  in  the 
eye.  That  long  lane  of  watchers  stretching  two  hun- 
dred miles,  that  lined  the  way  by  which  he  journeyed, 
silent,  bareheaded,  tearful ;  the  woman  who  stood  in 
the  station  at  Wilmington  (was  it  ?),  with  her  babe  at 
her  breast,  straining  her  eyes  for  one  glimpse  of  that 
stricken  son  of  another  and  more  aged  mother,  and 
who,  when  her  child  cried,  turned  instantly  away,  and, 
without  a  word,  vanished  out  of  sight  and  hearing,  lest 
even  her  child's  cry  should  disturb  the   sufferer;    the 

4 


50  Waymarks. 

little  fellow  at  Elberon  who  asked  permission  to  drive 
one  spike  in  the  temporary  track,  that  so  he  too  might 
share  the  privilege  of  smoothing  the  way  for  the  na- 
tion's patient ;  the  cottager  who,  when  the  foreman  of 
that  same  track-laying  company  said  to  him,  "  Sir,  1 
fear  we  shall  have  to  carry  the  track  through  yonder 
flower-bed,"  answered  quickly,  ''  Carry  it  through  the 
house  if  it  will  better  serve  the  President  I "  —  these 
are  but  one  or  two  of  uncounted  and  countless  evi- 
dences of  a  sympathy  so  tender,  a  generosity  so  eager, 
a  gracious  and  beautiful  unselfishness  which  gives  one  a 
new  faith  in  humanity,  and  makes  him  prouder  of  his  kind. 

2.  But  there  hag  been  more  than  sympathy ;  there 
has  been  earnest  and  almost  universal  prayer.  How 
are  we  to  explain  it  ?  In  a  moment  of  panic  on  ship- 
board, in  an  earthquake,  in  the  presence  of  any  sudden 
and  appalling  calamity,  men  will  fling  themselves  upon 
their  knees,  and  cry  out  in  an  ecstasy  of  panic  and  ter- 
ror. And  under  such  circumstances,  we  should  hardly 
maintain  that  their  conduct  was  evidence  of  their  faith 
in  God,  or  in  the  power  of  prayer.  Such  an  act,  we 
might  rightly  say,  would  be  apt  to  be  more  the  fruit 
of  a  blind  fear  than  of  sound  reason. 

But  in  the  case  of  the  country  it  has  been  different. 
There  has  been  no  panic  and  no  sudden  danger  to  indi- 
viduals or  the  nation.  If  the  President  were  to  die 
to-morrow,  there  is  no  one  of  us  who  believes  that  the 
government  would  go  on  otherwise  than  in  an  orderly 
and  peaceful  way,  without  the  smallest  peril  to  any 
single   citizen.     And   yet,  in   spite    of   this   absence   of 


A  Nation's  Prayers.  51 

panic,  there  has  been  a  steadily  growing  impulse  and 
tendency  toward  prayer.  These  seventy  days  that  have 
come  and  gone  have  not  weakened,  they  have  deepened 
it ;  and  men  who  have  not  said  a  prayer  for  twenty 
years  have  been  seen,  during  the  past  week,  in  the 
House  of  God,  and  on  their  knees. 

Surely  the  meaning  of  all  this  is  not  hard  to  see. 
Our  own  sympathies,  by  a  combination  of  circumstances 
unusual  and  most  impressive,  have  been  appealed  to  in 
a  very  marked  and  singular  way.  The  patient  and 
manly  sufferer,  the  aged  mother,  the  heroic  wife,  whose 
fine  fibre,  tense  as  steel  and  steadfast  as  a  star,  is  the 
stuff  of  which  great  nations  are  made,  —  these  have 
combined  to  elicit  a  feeling  which  has  been  a  glory  and 
beauty  to  the  people  in  whom  it  has  found  expression. 
And  what  is  it  that  has  followed  upon  this  sympathy  ? 
A  steadily  deepening  conviction  of  God's  sympathy. 
Men  and  women  have  argued  from  their  own  softened 
hearts  up  to  God's  heart.  They  have  said,  "  If  we  feel 
in  this  way,  how  must  God  feel  ?  We  have  a  thou- 
sand things  to  make  us  hard  and  selfish  and  indiffer- 
ent, that  cannot  possibly  affect  Him.  And  if  we  are 
so  drawn  together  and  softened  by  this  common  sor- 
row, surely  it  must  make  its  appeal  to  Him ;  and  just 
because  He  is  our  Father,  and  the  President's  Father, 
and  the  Father  of  that  vast  army  of  sufferers  of  whom, 
after  all,  we  must  not  forget  the  President  is  not  the 
chief.  He  cannot  and  will  not  be  indifferent." 

What  is  there  now  which  follows  inevitably  from 
this  ?     Keep  in  mind   all  along  here,  that,  in  accord- 


52  Waymarhs. 

ance  with  the  spirit  of  those  words  of  David  with  which 
we  began,  we  are  arguing  from  our  own  nature  up  to 
God's.  He  must  have  a  heart  of  sympathy,  we  say, 
because  our  natures  are  an  image  of  His,  and  because, 
deep  in  even  the  most  selfish  human  nature  there  are 
some  possibilities  of  sympathy.  Yes,  and  there  is  more. 
There  is  an  instinct  of  generous  response  when  our 
sympathies  are  appealed  to.  There  is  that  —  and  we 
know  perfectly  well  that  it  is  the  best  and  noblest  ele- 
ment in  our  nature  —  which,  when  another  asks  help 
of  us,  prompts  us  to  give  it ;  which,  that  is  to  say,  when 
another  prays  to  us,  prompts  us  to  hear  his  prayer,  and 
to  grant  it  if  we  can.  But  He  that  made  the  ear,  with 
which  we  hear  another's  prayer,  can  He  not  hear  that 
prayer  when  it  is  addressed  to  Him  ?  And  He  that 
made  the  eye,  with  which  we  see  another's  sorrow, 
and  feel  for  it,  cannot  He,  too,  see  that  sorrow,  and 
feel  for  it  with  an  infinitely  greater  tenderness  ? 

It  is  thus  that  those  deeper  instincts  of  the  human 
heart,  which  witness  to  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
His  sympathy  with  His  children,  are,  as  I  read  them, 
a  stronger  argument  for  prayer  than  any  other.  We 
may  stumble  amid  the  seeming  contradictions  between 
prayer  and  natural  laws,  or  between  a  predestinating 
Providence  and  the  soul's  personal  cry  ;  but  wider  than 
all  of  them  —  nay,  all-inclusive,  and  all-encompassing  — 
is  the  mighty  heart  of  God,  to  whose  paternal  conscious- 
ness all  these  seeming  contradictions  now  appear,  even 
as  one  day,  it  may  be,  they  will  appear  to  us,  the 
veriest  dreams  of  a  disordered  imagination. 


A  Nation's  Prayers.  53 

And  so  let  us  thank  God  that  He  has  given  us,  in 
our  own  natures,  this  witness  of  our  right  to  pray  to 
Him.  As  we  hear,  so,  the  soul  tells  us  in  our  doubt- 
ing moments,  does  He  who  made  that  with  which  we 
hear  no  less  hearken  and  listen  Himself.  There  are 
moments  when,  in  some  darkness,  some  secret,  un- 
shared trouble,  you  cannot  speak  to  any  one  else.  Do 
not  forget  then  to  speak  to  Him.  Remember  that  you 
are  His  child,  and  refuse  to  live  as  if  you  were  only 
a  dumb  and  voiceless  brute. 

"  For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats, 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  in  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer. 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  1 
For  so,  the  whole  round  world  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God ! " 

So  has  wisely  sung  a  voice  which  finds  an  echo  in 
uncounted  hearts.  And  the  words  suggest  one  other 
fact  which  must  needs  chasten  our  thankfulness  in  that 
evidence  of  a  nation's  faith  in  the  power  of  prayer 
which  has  lately  in  so  many  ways  been  given  to  us. 
Unless  our  experience  in  this  community  has  been 
exceptional,  the  observance  of  last  Thursday  was  conspic- 
uous by  the  absence  of  the  one  class  which,  of  all  others, 
is  the  most  numerous  among  us.  I  mean  the  working 
class.  Banks  and  shops  and  offices  were  closed,  but  so 
far  as  one  could  see,  the  day-laborer  went  as  usual  to 
his  toil,  and  nothing  was  done  to  make  it  easier  for  him 
to  find  his  way  into  the  house  of  God,  or  to  give  him  a 
chance  to  pray  after  he  had  done  so.     I  do  not  under- 


54  Wai/marks. 

take  to  say  whose  fault  this  is,  but  one  thing  greatly 
needs  to  be  said,  and  that  is  that  no  theory  of  social 
ethics  is  a  sound  one  which  keeps  prayer,  or  opportuni- 
ties for  prayer,  as  the  privilege  of  any  one  class  or 
caste  in  the  community.  If  we  cannot  stop  building 
and  loading  and  unloading  and  ploughing  and  reaping 
and  digging  long  enough  both  to  pray  ourselves  and 
let  our  toiling  fellow-man  kneel  down  beside  us  also, 
then  we  had  better  not  build  nor  dig  at  all.  Our  foun- 
dations will  be  but  sand,  no  matter  how  deep  down 
we  sink  them.  A  nation  which  keeps  religion  or  the 
offices  of  religion  for  any  one  part  of  its  people,  to  the 
neglect  of  the  rest,  has  begun  to  declare  that  it  does 
not  believe  in  God  at  all.  For  if  it  did,  then  it  would 
remember  that  any  system  of  religion  which  leaves  out 
His  neediest  and  most  dependent  children,  is  at  once  a 
mockery  and  a  sham.  "The  poor  crieth  and  the  Lord 
heareth  him "  is  a  promise  which,  as  I  remember  it, 
is  not  made  in  any  such  general  and  unqualified  terms 
to  either  the  rich,  the  clever,  or  the  respectable. 

See  to  it,  then,  I  beseech  you,  just,  in  so  far  as  your 
own  lot  is  easier  or  more  privileged  than  any  other, 
that  you  guard  the  rights  of  that  other  to  commune 
with  his  Maker  and  his  Saviour.  Help  other  men  and 
women  to  pray  —  the  servants  who  serve  you,  the 
laborer  who  toils  for  you,  the  outcast  whose  soul  no 
man  cares  for,  though  philanthropy  may  feed  his  body 
—  by  keeping  sacred  for  these  some  hours  of  approach 
to  God.  In  their  fnterests,  as  well  as  in  your  own, 
guard  Sunday  from  the  hands  that,  upon  whatsoever 


A  Nation's  Prayers.  66 

pretence,  would  make  it  no  different  from  any  other 
day.  You  want  and  they  want,  believe  me,  to  be 
drawn  nearer  to  their  unseen  Father.  These  are  pros- 
perous times,  they  tell  us  ;  but  oh,  what  sorrow  there 
must  be  in  human  homes  when  life  is  held  so  cheaply, 
and  when  men  and  women  who  have  not  the  heart  to 
face  their  cheerless  future  are  ending  it  so  soon  and 
so  awfully.  What  must  they  think,  these  poor,  be- 
nighted ones,  of  the  Father  who  is  over  them  ?  Do 
they  believe  in  Him  at  all  ?  Do  they  care  to  find 
Him  and  to  be  helped  by  Him  ?  And  yet,  in  all  their 
blind  groping  and  stumbling  and  falling,  they  are  your 
brothers  and  sisters,  and  mine,  and  He  who  prayed 
for  them  from  His  cross  is  praying  for  them  still. 

Be  it  ours  to  pray  for  them  no  less.  There  are 
clouds  about  our  own  pathway,  it  may  be,  that  do  not 
break  or  lift.  We  have  prayed  for  light,  and  yet  it 
has  not  come.  Let  us  think,  now  and  then,  if  it  be 
so  of  those  whose  way  is  darker  even  than  our  own. 
Let  us  learn  not  only  to  pray,  but  to  pray  unselfishly 
for  them  ;  for  so  —  I  know  not  by  what  strange  alchemy 
it  is,  but,  believe  me,  it  is  true  —  so  shall  we  often 
find  our  own  doubts  hushed,  our  own  fears  dispelled, 
and  our  darkness  turning  into  day.  Forgetting  our- 
selves for  a  little  in  thought  and  prayer  for  others, 
we  shall  find  that  He  whose  name  is  Love  has  not 
forgotten  us  ! 


IV. 

A  NATION'S   SORROW. 
Blessed  art  thou,  0  land,  when  thy  king  is  the  son  of  iiobles  ! 

ECCLESIASTES    X.    17. 

It  is  a  king  himself  who  writes  these  words,  and  whose 
ancestry,  only  a  single  step  backwards,  found  its  root 
in  a  royalty  no  nobler  nor  more  imperial  than  a  shep- 
herd's boy.  For  Solomon  is  the  preacher  here,  and  the 
father  of  Solomon  was  David,  the  shepherd  lad  of 
Bethlehem. 

And  so,  when  he  writes,  "  Blessed  art  thou,  0  land, 
when  thy  king  is  the  son  of  nobles,"  we  know  that  in 
his  thought  there  is  something  more  and  greater  than 
the  mere  nobility  of  rank,  or  the  titled  eminence  that 
comes  with  ancient  and  lofty  lineage.  Such  a  lineage 
is  not  without  its  blessings,  and  it  is  only  a  prejudiced 
and  unintelligent  judgment  that  can  despise  its  value. 
If  we  believe  that  a  pure  strain,  that  courage  and  en- 
durance and  a  kindly  disposition  may  be  passed  on  by 
a  horse  or  a  dog,  it  is  a  stupid  and  unreflecting  radical- 
ism that  despises  the  same  principle  when  it  is  applied 
to  men.  To  be  born  of  noble  and  kingly  parentage 
ought  to  carry  with  it  something  of  the  instincts  of 
nobility,  even  if  always  it  does  not ;  and  we  republicans 


A  Nation' 8  Sorrow.  57 

do  not  need  to  disparage  a  princely  lineage,  even 
though  in  dispensing  once  for  all  with  kings  and  princes 
and  nobles  and  the  privileges  of  inherited  rank,  we 
have  found,  as  we  believe,  a  wiser  and  "  more  excellent 
way." 

But  while  this  is  true,  it  is,  as  I  have  implied,  of 
nobility  in  some  larger  and  loftier  sense  that  Solomon 
is  speaking  here.  Behind  all  character  there  are  en- 
during principles,  and  it  is  by  these  principles,  handed 
on  often  from  sire  to  son,  but  developed  for  the  first 
time  sometimes  by  him  in  whom  they  are  illustrated, 
that  greatness  is  nurtured,  and  the  truest  kingship 
achieved.  We  see,  now  and  then,  men  of  the  humblest 
lineage,  as  the  world  reckons  such  things,  who  mount 
to  the  loftiest  eminence  from  lowliest  and  most  obscure 
beginnings,  and  we  see  all  along,  in  the  history  of  such 
men,  certain  dominant  aspirations,  certain  clear  convic- 
tions, a  faith  and  courage  and  majesty  of  rectitude, 
which  rule  and  mould  them  from  the  beginning.  Such 
men,  whatever  their  origin,  seem  to  be  born  of  great 
truths  and  nurtured  by  grand  ideas.  In  the  womb  of 
these  their  intellects  were  nourished,  their  wills  disci- 
plined, and  their  consciences  enlightened.  If  we  go 
back  to  the  mothers  who  bore  them,  no  matter  in  what 
humble  station  they  lived  and  toiled  and  nourished 
their  little  ones,  the  same  noble  qualities  appear,  and 
these  are  the  influences  that  rule  and  mould  the  man. 
Such  a  man,  in  whatever  high  station  he  stands,  is  great 
and  noble,  because  he  is,  most  of  all,  the  son  of  noble 
beliefs  and  noble  convictions. 


58  Waymarhs. 

It  is  such  a  man  that  this  nation  mourns  to-day,  and 
whose  memory  we  honor,  not  merely  nor  only  because 
he  was  President,  but  because  kinglier  than  his  official 
position,  more  royal  than  his  ancestry  or  lineage,  noble 
and  heroic  as  is  the  mother  who  bore  him,  was  the  man 
himself.  And  of  him  I  would  speak  this  morning,  not 
so  much  in  a  strain  of  grief,  nor  with  the  thought  of  our 
common  bereavement,  as  in  thankfulness  to  the  Provi- 
dence who  gave  him  to  us,  and  in  gratitude  for  the 
benediction  of  his  example.  With  a  wise  appropriate- 
ness the  Church  and  the  State  unite  in  calling  us  to- 
morrow to  a  day  of  humiliation  and  fasting  and  prayer. 
Our  past  as  a  nation  is  not  so  stainless  that  we  do  not 
need  to  humble  ourselves.  Our  present  is  not  so  cloud- 
less nor  so  aspiring  that  we  do  not  need  both  to  disci- 
pline and  ennoble  it  by  fasting.  Our  future  is  not  so 
secure  that  we  may  not  wisely  and  earnestly  pray  for  a 
loftier  guidance  and  a  more  unerring  wisdom  than  our 
own.  But,  meantime,  the  life  and  work  of  our  dead 
President  are  completed,  and  as  the  nation  watches 
round  his  bier,  every  citizen  in  it  of  kin  to  him  who  is 
gone  in  this  common  grief  of  ours,  and  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  a  mourner,  let  us  gather  the  lessons 
of  a  royal  life,  and  bless  God  to-day  that  our  dead  king 
was  the  son  of  nobles. 

Happily,  our  theme  for  these  few  moments  is  bounded 
and  circumscribed  by  this  place  and  this  hour.  It  is 
not  mine  to  speak  of  Mr.  Garfield  as  a  teacher,  a  man 
of  letters,  a  soldier,  or  a  statesman.  Nor  am  I  called 
to  sketch  the  romance  of  his  swift  and  sure  ascent. 


A  Nation's  Sorrow.  59 

with  no  step  backward  in  it  all,  from  the  tow-path  to 
the  White  House.  These  are  aspects  of  his  history 
which  will  get  abundant  recognition  elsewhere,  and 
which  are  in  no  danger  of  being  lost  sight  of  in  the 
eulogy  of  the  forum  nor  the  pages  of  books  and  news- 
papers. But,  howsoever  worthy  of  commemoration  they 
biay  be,  —  and  most  surely  they  belong  to  the  history  of 
our  time,  and  of  this  people,  —  they  are  largely  foreign 
to  those  interests  and  truths  for  which  the  pulpit  exists 
to  witness,  and  with  which  it  should  chiefly  be  con- 
cerned. In  this  place,  at  any  rate,  it  is  of  moment  to 
ask,  not  how  high  a  man  climbed,  nor  from  whence ;  not 
how  many  offices  he  held,  nor  how  soon  he  grasped 
them ;  not  even  how  much  learning  adorned  him,  nor 
how  gracefully  he  used  it;  but  behind  and  within  all 
this  scaffolding  of  outward  activities,  how  grew  the  man 
himself  ?  What  of  his  character  in  its  inmost  fibre 
and  quality ;  not  what  did  he  do,  but  what  did  he 
come  to  be,  and  how  ?  What  of  the  Godward  side  of 
the  man,  —  that  side  of  every  man  which  was  made 
to  reach  out  and  up,  —  his  moral  nature,  his  faith  in 
the  unseen,  his  wealth  in  that  kind  of  character  which, 
when  we  come  to  open  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament, 
seems  oftenest  to  confront  us  there.  It  is  of  these 
aspects  of  the  life  and  work  of  our  dead  President 
that  I  would  speak  to-day.  In  other  words,  I  would 
recall  this  morning,  and  this  morning  bless  God  for, 
his  good  example :  (1)  of  fidelity  ;  (2)  of  manly  Chris- 
tian faith ;  and  then  (3)  of  Christian  heroism  and 
patience. 


60  Waymarks, 

1.  Says  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  writing 
to  the  church  at  Corinth,  ''  It  is  required  in  stewards 
that  a  man  be  found  faithful ; "  and  when  Saint  John  is 
gathering  up  for  our  instruction  those  wonderful  echoes 
of  the  Apocalyptic  vision  which  came  to  him  on  Pat- 
mos,  he  is  bidden  to  write,  "  Be  thou  faithful  unto 
death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown  of  life."  What 
a  faithful  life  it  was  that  breathed  itself  out  at  Elberon 
last  Monday  !  That  story  of  the  orphan  lad  fighting 
his  way  through  every  difficulty ;  first  to  an  education, 
and  then  to  eminence  in  three  distinct  vocations, 
teacher,  soldier,  statesman,  and  genuinely  great  in  all 
of  them,  —  what  is  there  in  it  that  so  much  enlists  us 
as  its  fidelity  ?  There  are  men  who  advance  to  emi- 
nence borne  on  from  the  outset  by  gifts  of  genius  and 
force  of  will,  which  make  distinction  inevitable.  But 
the  ruler  whom  we  have  lost  was  in  no  sense  a  man 
of  genius,  and  had  a  nature  as  gentle  and  considerate 
as  a  woman's.  He  did  not  climb  up  simply  by  thrust- 
ing others  down,  and  he  did  not  achieve  without  the 
strain  and  toil  of  brave  and  faithful  endeavor.  In  a 
sketch  of  him  from  the  pen  of  an  Englishman,  there 
occurs  an  incident  which,  until  I  read  it  there,  was  new 
to  me,  and  which  I  venture  to  recall  here,  though  to 
some  of  you  it  may  be  familiar,  because  it  illustrates 
so  aptly  this  special  quality  of  General  Garfield's  hab- 
itual fidelity  :  — 

At  an  early  period  in  our  late  war,  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky was  threatened  with  invasion  by  a  large  body  of 
Confederate  troops,  who  had  in  fact,  some  five  thousand 


A  Nation's  Sorrow.  61 

of  them,  already  crossed  its  eastern  border.  In  Decem- 
ber, Colonel  Garfield  (as  he  then  was)  was  ordered  to 
report  himself  and  his  regiment  to  General  Buell,  at 
Louisville.  The  historian  of  the  Forty-second  Regiment 
relates  his  interview  with  Buell  and  the  result.  In  the 
evening  Colonel  Garfield  reached  Louisville  and  sought 
General  Buell  at  his  headquarters.  He  found  a  cold, 
silent,  austere  man,  who  asked  a  few  direct  questions, 
revealed  nothing,  and  eyed  the  new-comer  with  a  curious, 
searching  expression,  as  though  trying  to  look  into  the 
untried  Colonel  and  see  whether  he  w^ould  succeed  or 
fail.  Taking  a  map,  General  Buell  pointed  out  the  posi- 
tion of  Marshall's  forces  in  Eastern  Kentucky,  marked 
the  locations  in  which  the  Union  troops  in  that  district 
were  posted,  explained  the  nature  of  the  country,  and 
then  dismissed  his  visitor  with  this  remark  :  "  If  you 
were  in  command  of  the  sub-department  of  Eastern 
Kentucky,  what  would  you  do  ?  Come  here  to-morrow 
at  nine  o'clock,  and  tell  me."  Colonel  Garfield  returned 
to  his  hotel,  procured  a  map  of  Kentucky,  the  last  Cen- 
sus Report,  paper,  pen,  and  ink,  and  sat  down  to  his 
task.  He  studied  the  roads,  resources,  and  population  of 
every  county  in  Eastern  Kentucky.  At  daylight  he  was 
still  at  work,  and  had  been  at  work  all  night;  but  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  he  was  at  headquarters  with 
a  sketch  of  his  plans.  Having  read  the  paper  carefully. 
General  Buell  made  it  the  basis  of  an  immediate  order, 
placing  Garfield  in  command  of  a  brigade  of  four  regi- 
ments of  infantry  and  a  battalion  of  cavalry,  and  ordered 
him,  to  Eastern  Kentucky  to  expel  Marshall's  force  in  his 


62  Way7narhs. 

own  way.  The  result  of  this  appointment  Was  the  battle 
of  Mill  Creek,  the  first  victory  gained  by  the  Union 
troops  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  this  by  men 
inferior  in  numbers  to  the  troops  to  whom  they  were 
opposed,  and  who  had  never  before  been  under  iire. 

The  significance  of  such  an  incident  as  this  is  larger 
than  at  first  appears.  It  is  the  eternal  law  that  he  who 
has  been  faithful  over  a  few  tilings  shall  be  made  ruler 
over  many  things ;  and  it  was  here  the  fidelity  in  the 
immediate  task  which  opened  the  way  for  those  larger 
honors  and  responsibilities  that  lay  beyond  it.  To  do 
that  task  well,  nay,  best,  —  not  to  slight  it,  nor  to  shirk 
it,  —  to  turn  on  the  problem  given  him  to  solve  every 
light  at  his  command,  and  then  to  sit  up  all  night 
working  at  its  solution,  this  revealed  a  manhood  whose 
strongest  instinct,  nay,  whose  settled  habit  had  come 
to  be  fidelity.  Think  back,  now,  along  the  earlier  his- 
tory of  the  young  soldier  (for  he  w^as  then  scarce  thirty 
years  of  age),  and  remember  by  what  earlier  fidelity 
that  habit  had  been  strengthened  and  disciplined.  To 
do  his  duty,  and  to  do  it  with  his  whole  heart,  this  seems 
to  have  been  the  eager  purpose  of  boy  and  man  alike. 

And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  other  men  trusted  and 
leaned  upon  him.  He  never  addressed  himself  to  any 
question  without  doing  his  best  to  master  it,  and  the 
thoroughness  with  which  he  wrought  has  been  one  of  his 
characteristics  which  has,  1  think,  been  but  partially 
and  imperfectly  appreciated.  He  was  not  an  elegant 
scholar,  and  little  inaccuracies  of  his  in  a  Latin  quota- 
tion, for  instance,  have  led  some  of  us  to  smile  at  the 


A  Nation's  Sorrow.  63 

claim  which  others  made  for  him  of  eminent  culture. 
But  he  had  something  better  than  the  learning  of  mere 
technical  accuracy  or  literary  nicety ,  he  had  the  learn- 
ing which  reveals  that  a  man  has  mastered  what  he  is 
talking  about.  His  financial  speeches  are  a  striking 
illustration  of  this,  disclosing  a  knowledge  of  the  history 
of  finance  in  older  nations  which  is  equally  rare  and 
valuable.  But  he  only  got  this,  as  alone  he  got  other 
things,  by  digging  for  them.  He  had  a  ready  command 
of  words,  but  they  were  worth  listening  to  because  he 
had  packed  into  them  the  result  of  long-continued  and 
painstaking  assiduity.  And  hence  it  was  that  honors 
sought  him,  and  larger  burdens  were  given  him  to  bear. 
It  did  not  matter  what  task  was  assigned  to  him ;  no 
sooner  was  he  called  to  it  than  it  became  a  trust,  and  he 
himself  a  steward  who  must  give  account. 

I  take  it,  this  is  the  practical  difference  between  those 
who  do  the  work  of  life  and  those  who  fail  to  do  it. 
Make  every  allowance  that  utmost  charity  can  claim  for 
feeble  powers  and  narrow  brains  and  broken  health  and 
inherited  disabilities,  and  the  fact  remains  that  the  world 
divides  itself  into  the  faithful  and  the  faithless,  —  those 
who  face  their  work  and  those  who  evade  it.  And  so, 
at  last,  when  the  account  is  made  up  and  the  verdict 
pronounced,  it  runs,  "  Well  done,  good  and  "  —  not 
good-natured,  or  eloquent,  or  well-meaning,  but  —  "Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant." 

2.  In  President  Garfield  this  fidelity  was  united  to  — 
ought  I  not  rather  to  say  it  was  rooted  in  —  a  manly  and 
courageous  Christian  faith.      A  manly  and  courageous 


64  Waymarks. 

Christian  faith,  I  say ;  for  there  were  features  in  the  relig- 
ious life  of  our  late  Chief  Magistrate  which  were  in  many 
respects  exceptional.  It  is  not  uncommon  for  public  men 
to  be,  at  any  rate,  nominal  Christians,  and  to  indicate 
their  belief  by  at  least  acquiescence  in  Christian  usages 
and  traditions.  But  in  General  Garfield  there  was  some- 
thing more  than  acquiescence  in  something  more  than  a 
tradition.  He  belonged  to  a  communion  whose  name 
was  by  the  great  majority  of  people  unknown  until  they 
heard  it  in  connection  with  him,  and  whose  tenets  and 
fellowship  were  alike  obscure.  It  was  a  communion  ut- 
terly without  prestige  either  of  numbers,  wealth,  or  influ- 
ence. A  man  may  be  proud  to  be  of  the  Methodists  or 
Baptists,  because  they  are  so  numerous,  or  to  be  of  the 
Presbyterians,  because  they  are  so  orthodox  and  respect- 
able, or  to  be  a  Churchman,  because  it  is  so  historic,  or  a 
Unitarian,  because  they  are  so  clever  ;  but  to  be  a  mem- 
ber of  that  little  and  obscure  sect  that  called  itself  the 
Church  of  the  Disciples,  with  its  brief  history  and  sim- 
ple rites,  and  meagre  and  homely  brotherhood,  there 
was  no  distinction  in  that,  but  rather  something  which, 
to  superficial  minds,  might  seem  to  border  upon  the 
reverse.  And  so  it  was  to  the  honor  of  the  President 
that  all  along  he  clung  to  that  earlier  fellowship  in 
which,  in  the  first  flush  of  his  opening  manhood,  he  had 
found  his  way  into  the  enkindling  fellowship  of  his 
Master  and  Saviour.  In  that  humble  communion  there 
seem  to  have  been  good  men  who  strongly  influenced  his 
childhood  and  youth  alike.  He  never  forgot  them.  He 
turned  to  them  all  along,  with  deepening  reverence  and 


A  Nation's  Sorrow,  65 

gratitude ;  and  his  love  for  his  Bible,  his  habit  of  getting 
wisdom  and  strength  for  each  day's  duties  on  his  knees, 
which  he  had  early  learned  of  these  men,  these,  too,  he 
never  forgot  nor  outgrew.  It  is  the  vice  of  our  American 
manhood  that  in  matters  of  religion  it  is  so  often  so  fur- 
tive and  secretive.  We  are  ashamed  to  be  seen  reading 
a  good  book,  and,  most  of  all,  to  be  seen  reading  the 
best  book.  A  merchant  who  should  keep  a  copy  of  the 
two  Testaments  at  his  elbow  would  be  thought,  by  many 
people,  a  fanatic  or  a  Pharisee.  And  yet  he  would  find 
better  advice  in  either  of  them,  often,  than  he  would  get 
from  the  most  learned  treatise  on  banking  or  the  most 
profound  disquisition  on  laws  of  exchange.  Has  it  ever 
occurred  to  us  why  there  has  been  such  rare  earnest- 
ness and  reality  in  all  our  praying  for  the  President  ? 
Though  we  have  not  been  conscious  of  it,  I  am  per- 
suaded that  it  has  been  because,  in  the  common  heart 
and  thought  of  the  people,  there  has  been  the  deep  sub- 
consciousness that  he  for  whom  they  were  praying 
believed  in  prayer  himself,  and  that  while  they  were 
asking  God  to  heal  him,  he  himself  was  trying  every 
hour  to  say,  in  the  spirit  of  that  Master  who  said  it 
Himself,  and  who  taught  us  all  to  say  it,  Not  as  I  will 
but  as  Thou  wilt :  Thy  will  be  done  ! 

3.  And  this  brings  me  naturally  and  obviously  to 
speak  of  that  last  trait  in  the  leader  whom  we  have  lost, 
which,  as  I  think,  it  belongs  to  us  in  this  place  pre- 
eminently to  recall.  It  has  been  said  that  if  the  Presi- 
dent had  died  on  the  day  that  he  was  shot  down  by  the 
assassin's  hand,  the  outburst  of  indignation  would  have 

5 


66  Waymarks. 

been  far  fiercer,  but  that  the  feeling  elicited  would  have 
been  alike  more  ephemeral  and  more  circumscribed.  It 
is  not  difficult  to  see  why.  Never  was  there  a  nobler 
triumph  of  the  grace  of  patience  than  in  this  man. 
There  is  a  great  deal  that  seemed  trivial  or  insignificant 
at  the  time  that  it  happened,  which  now,  looking  back 
on  it,  we  can  estimate  at  its  true  worth.  The  play- 
ful greeting  with  which  he  welcomed  his  friends  to 
the  sick-chamber,  the  cheery  word  or  look,  that  at  the 
time  we  took  for  tokens  how  much  less  grave  was  the 
emergency  than  we  dreaded,  —  ah,  how  different  they 
all  read  now !  To  bear  pain  is  hard  enough,  and  men 
who  can  be  brave  in  danger,  and  can  endure  without 
a  quiver  some  brief  operation,  are  apt  to  break  down 
very  soon  in  those  long  stretches  of  suffering  which 
women  have  oftener  to  bear  than  men,  and  which  they 
bear  usually  so  much  better.  But  here  was  a  sufferer 
whose  patience  and  courage  were  co-equal.  Remember 
what  message  he  sent  from  his  sick  room  to  the  wife 
who  was  hastening  to  his  side :  "  The  President  is 
wounded  —  how  seriously  he  cannot  tell.  He  asks 
that  you  should  come  to  him,  and  sends  you  his  love." 
No  note  of  panic,  no  half  savage  shriek  of  command,  — 
innate  dignity,  sweetness,  self-control,  tenderest  thought 
for  another.  And  so  it  was  all  along.  When  they 
lifted  him  into  the  car  at  Washington,  some  awkward 
hand  jarred  the  stretcher  against  the  doorway.  A  pang 
of  intense  pain  flashed  its  brief  signal  across  the  face 
of  the  sufferer,  ^ — how  keen  a  sufferer  we  know,  now 
that  we  have  read  the  story  of  that  pierced  and  shattered 


A  Nation's  Sorrow,  67 

spine,  —  but  no  more  —  no  word  of  impatience  or  com- 
plaint. And  later  on,  when  the  wasted  invalid  is  lifted 
for  a  brief  vision  of  the  sea — fit  symbol  of  that  wider 
ocean  on  which  iie  was  so  soon  to  launch  —  as  the 
passing  sentinel,  catching  a  glimpse  of  the  President, 
straightway  salutes  his  commander-in-chief,  the  old 
instinct  of  courtesy  carries  the  shadowy  hand  to  the 
visor,  and  once  more  the  brave  and  patient  sufferer 
forgets  himself.  Ah  I  my  brothers^  this  sweet  and 
steady  self-command  I  this  tireless  and  heroic  patience  I 
—  these  were  the  noblest  of  all.  We  lift  our  eyes  from 
that  sick  bed  to  the  cross  of  One  who  was  once  wounded 
and  who  suffered  for  us  all.  And  it  is  the  same  spec- 
tacle of  patient  and  uncomplaining  suffering  that  at 
once  wins  and  conquers  us  there.  To  do,  that  were 
indeed  noble  if  there  were  nothing  nobler  in  life.  But 
to  bear,  to  lie  still  and  patiently  endure,  that  is  grander 
still. 

And  so  we  thank  God  to-day  for  that  good  example 
of  this  His  servant,  who  has  finished  a  course  so  heroic. 
Fidelity  in  duty,  faith  in  Christ,  and  patience  in  suffer- 
ing, —  surely  these  are  the  elements  out  of  which  the 
most  lasting  greatness  is  builded.  Blessed,  thrice 
blessed,  0  land,  whose  king  is  the  son  of  such  nobili- 
ties as  these.  Kingly  verily  he  was  who  could  prove 
his  right  to  rule  by  gifts  so  royal  as  these.  Who  shall 
say  that  they  or  he  have  done  their  glorious  work  ?  As 
we  stand  to-day  and  look  down  into  that  open  grave 
where  to-morrow  he  is  to  be  laid  amid  the  tears  and 
lamentations  of  fifty  millions  of  people,  who  shall  say 


68  Way  marks. 

that  his  kingly  work  is  ended  ?  That  vigorous  intellect, 
those  generous  sympathies,  that  patient  courage,  that 
simple  and  reverent  faith,  —  are  all  these  forever  hushed 
and  stilled  ?  As  the  low-browed  portal  swings  upon 
its  hinges,  does  it  open  upon  nothing  beyond  ?  "  And 
I  heard  as  it  were  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and  as 
the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  sound  of  mighty 
thunderings,  saying.  Alleluia ;  for  the  Lord  God  omnipo- 
tent reigneth  I  And  one  answered  me  saying.  What  are 
these  which  are  arrayed  in  white  raiment,  and  whence 
come  they  ?  And  I  said  unto  him.  Sir,  thou  knowest.  And 
he  said  unto  me.  These  are  they  which  came  out  of  great 
tribulation."  The  long  fight  is  ended.  The  bitterness 
of  death  is  passed.  Standing  some  of  them  in  low 
places  and  some  of  them  in  high  ones,  bearing  their 
burden,  doing  their  task,  owning  their  Lord,  they  have 
toiled  and  striven  and  endured,  and  so  have  fallen 
asleep.  And  therefore,  tarrying  but  a  little  in  their 
earthly  resting-places,  they  stand,  at  last,  before  the 
throne  of  God ;  they  serve  Him  day  and  night  in  His 
temple,  and  "  He  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall  dwell 
among  them."  No  pang  can  touch  them  now.  ''  They 
shall  hunger  no  more ;  neither  thirst  any  more  ;  neither 
shall  the  sun  light  on  them  ;  nor  any  heat.  For  the 
Lamb  which  is  in  the  midst  of  the  throne  shall  feed 
them,  and  shall  lead  them  unto  living  fountains  of 
waters ;  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their 
eyes." 


PREFATORY  TO   NEW  YORK   MERCHANTS. 

The  history  of  the  city  of  New  York  would  be  very  im- 
perfectly written  if  it  did  not  include  some  record  of  a  class 
of  men  whose  names  have  rarely  been  conspicuous  for  civic 
place,  or  in  the  realm  of  art,  or  letters,  or  science.  It  has 
often  been  described,  as  though  it  were  to  its  disparagement, 
as  a  commercial  city,  and  undoubtedly  that  has  been  its 
conspicuous  distinction.  But  that  it  has  been  a  ver}^  noble 
and  honorable  distinction  is  best  known  by  those  whose 
privilege  it  has  been  to  watch  the  career  of  men  eminent  in 
business  and  finance  who  have  brought  to  the  large  and 
difficult  problems  of  the  commerce  of  two  hemisi^heres  gifts 
which  would  have  made  them  distinguished  in  any  calling, 
and  which,  best  of  all,  have  been  exercised,  from  first  to  last, 
without  one  taint  of  duplicity  or  dishonor.  The  financial 
history  of  any  great  city  is  inevitably  a  history  of  financial 
crises,  and  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  great  enterprises,  great 
houses,  and  strong  and  commanding  personalities.  Some 
of  these  are  included  within  the  period  covered  by  this 
volume,  and  the  inner  history  of  them  has  become  known  to 
those  who  in  the  pastoral  relation  have  enjoyed  the  confi- 
dence of  merchants,  bankers,  and  other  men  of  business  who 
were  their  ^larishioners. 

The  two  sermons  which  follow  commemorate  men  of  this 
class.  Both  of  them  were  largely  identified  in  every  best 
way  with  what  may  be  truly  called  the  higher  history  of 
New  York;  both  of  them  were  the  stewards  of  large  means; 
and  both  of  them  knew  something,  one  of  them  exceptionally 


70  Waymarks. 

much,  of  the  vicissitudes  of  commercial  life  in  an  American 
financial  centre.  It  is  interesting  to  recall  them  now,  after 
the  lapse  of  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  they  came 
into  official  relations  with  the  city  rector  who  desires  here  to 
commemorate  their  virtues.  Both  of  them  enjoyed  the  singu- 
lar felicity  of  an  intimate  friendship  with  much  the  most 
picturesque  and  original  figure  in  the  history  of  our  American 
Christianity;  I  mean  the  late  Dr.  Muhlenberg,  a  man  who 
achieved  during  his  lifetime  the  unique  distinction  of  being 
the  father  of  the  Church  School  movement,  the  Free  Church 
movement,  and  the  Church  Hospital  movement,  and  also  the 
founder  of  that  interesting  experiment  in  Christian  social- 
ism, with  which  as  his  generous  helpers,  both  Mr.  John 
David  Wolfe  and  Mr.  Adam  Norrie  were  associated,  known 
as  St.  Johnland. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  estimate  how  much  Dr.  Muhlen- 
berg's influence  had  to  do  in  educating  the  sympathies 
and  widening  the  vision  of  these  two  men.  But  behind  the 
aptitudes  to  see  and  feel,  there  were  in  both  of  them  those 
sturdy  bases  of  character,  unbending  integrity,  incorrupt- 
ible honesty,  and  a  devout  and  reverent  soul,  which  formed 
the  foundation  for  all  the  superstructure  of  conduct  and 
service  that  through  long  years  lifted  itself  increasingly 
into  the  recognition  and  respect  of  their  fellows.  They 
were,  both  of  them,  merchant  princes  in  the  best  sense,  — 
men  of  princely  ideas  in  the  realm  of  all  noble  doing,  and 
of  princely  beneficence  in  the  illustration  of  those  ideas. 
Men  come  and  go  in  the  marts  of  commerce,  but  the  memory 
of  such  men  remains,  an  enduring  fragrance  through  all  the 
dusty  highways  of  commercial  life.  • 

The  first  of  the  sermons  that  follow  was  preached  in  Grace 
Church,  New  York,  on  Sunday,  May  26,  1789,  and  the 
second  in  the  same  place  on  Sunday,   Nov.   12,   1882. 


V. 


SERMOX   COMMEMORATIVE   OF  JOHN 
DAVID    WOLFE. 

And  devout  men  carried  Stephen  to  his  burial,  and  made 
great  lamentation. — Acts  viii.  2. 

This  was  something  more  than  a  conventional  funeral. 
The  people  among  whom  it  occurred  were  given  to 
burial  rites  of  elaborate  and  studied  ceremonial.  Like 
all  orientalists,  their  mourning  was  chiefly  marked  by 
a  painstaking  and  intentional  publicity.  It  sought  the 
general  gaze,  and  not  content  with  the  cries  and  tears 
of  friends,  it  hired  professional  mourners,  with  whom 
the  dramatic  exhibition  of  feeling  was  a  trade,  and  who 
were,  in  the  expressive  language  of  the  writer  of  the 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  "  skilled  in  lamentation."  Nothino; 
could  mark  more  strongly  the  wide  difference  between 
the  social  customs  of  oriental  nations  and  our  own  than 
the  usages  of  the  burial  of  the  dead.  With  us,  demon- 
strations of  mere  emotion  on  such  occasions  are  at  once 
unusual  and  unlooked  for  ;  but  among  the  Aryan  and 
Semitic  races  alike,  grief,  whether  actual  or  simulated, 
was  demonstrative,  and  even  boisterous  and  obtrusive. 
Wide  apart  as  were  the  Greeks  and  the  Egyptians,  and 


72  Way  marks. 

widely  as  were  the  Hebrews  distinguished,  both  by 
their  religion  and  their  customs,  from  either,  these 
three  great  and  representative  peoples  of  the  elder  world 
were  almost  identical  in  the  usages  of  their  mourning. 
With  all  of  them,  grief  for  the  dead  meant  baring 
and  beating  the  breast,  sprinkling  or  sitting  in  ashes, 
songs  of  lamentation,  and  the  employment  of  mourning 
women. 

And  so,  when  the  martyred  Stephen  is  buried,  the 
customs  are  not  changed.  True,  he  was  not  merely  a 
Jew,  but  a  Christian ;  yet  the  infant  church  still  clung 
to  the  cherished  ceremonies  of  the  elder,  and  what  was 
usual  was  followed  here.  It  was  indeed  the  hatred  and 
vindictiveness  of  Judaism  which  had  slain  this  godly 
man  ;  yet,  when  he  is  dead,  the  manner  of  his  burial 
is  the  usage  of  Judaism  itself.  To  have  changed  it 
would  have  been  to  have  surrendered  his  claim  as  a 
veritable  and  loyal  Israelite ;  and  doubtless,  also,  to 
have  grieved  and  wounded  his  surviving  relatives.  All 
the  more  because  his  death  had  been  so  cruel  and 
distressing,  would  they  have  his  burial  decent  and 
reverent  and  painstaking ;  even  as  when  the  nation 
buries  some  honored  soldier  she  surrounds  his  funeral 
cortege  with  every  element  of  pomp  and  state  and 
ceremony,  as  though  she  would  atone  for  the  hardships 
of  his  bitter  and  lonely  end  upon  the  field  of  battle  by 
utmost  tenderness  and  reverence  in  dealing  with  his 
lifeless  body. 

And  thus  it  was  with  the  bruised  and  mangled  form 
of  Stephen.     The  funeral  order  of  his  race  was  care- 


Commemorative  of  John  David   Wolfe.  73 

fully  observed.  There  were  not  wanting  trains  of 
mourners,  a  funeral  escort,  nor  the  tones  of  loud-voiced 
lamentation.  Everything  that  mere  custom  demanded 
seems  to  have  been  scrupulously  and  painstakingly 
observed. 

But  there  was  this  difference,  —  and  it  comes  out 
with  a  singular  and  touching  significance  in  two  Greek 
words,  used  here  only  in  all  the  New  Testament:  the 
mourning  at  Stephen's  funeral  was  the  mourning  of 
unaffected  feeling,  and  the  attendants  who  followed 
him  to  his  grave  were  not  hired  mutes  nor  paid  mourn- 
ers, but  grief-stricken  and  godly  men.  I  presume  that 
every  slightest  ceremony  that  Judaism,  with  its  elabo- 
rate ritual,  demanded,  Avas  performed  without  an  omis- 
sion. But  no  careless  or  perfunctory  hands  touched 
the  martyr's  scarred  and  shattered  form,  and  "  devout 
men,"  who  knew  and  loved  the  saint  and  hero  sleeping 
in  his  blood-stained  shroud,  "made  great  lamentation 
over  him." 

Such  a  scene  at  once  suggests  the  thought  of  the 
difference  that  there  is  in  funerals.  The  Church  of 
which  we  are  members,  unlike  the  Christian  bodies 
about  her,  follows  the  usage  of  the  elder  Church  in 
having  one  common  ritual  for  all  her  baptized  dead. 
She  does  not  attempt  to  discriminate  either  in  her 
customs  or  her  utterances.  All  who  die  within  her  pale 
are  buried  with  the  same  Office,  and  have  said  over 
them  the  same  incomparable  words.  She  is  not  a 
judge,  with  such  infallible  insight  that  she  can  weigh 
character   and   prophesy   of  destiny.     There    are   some 


74  Waymarks. 

of  us  who  deplore  that  "liturgical  stiffness,"  as  it  is 
called,  which  leaves  no  room  for  the  play  of  individual 
pastoral  utterance  in  our  funeral  customs,  and  affords 
no  opportunity  for  converging  the  general  lines  of 
thought  and  emotion  appropriate  to  the  occasion  to 
the  individual  case  or  character.  But  the  candid  testi- 
mony of  those  who  enjoy  such  liberty,  and  who  are  free 
to  conduct  the  funeral  offices  of  religion  unreservedly  at 
their  own  discretion,  is  almost  unanimous  in  declaring 
the  exercise  of  that  discretion  to  be  at  once  painful, 
embarrassing,  and  in  its  results  very  often,  most  unfor- 
tunate. Where  prayer  and  hymn  and  eulogy  are  left 
free  to  be  ordered  by  the  supposed  demands  of  every 
individual  instance,  they  will  be  very  apt  to  become 
presumptuous  in  their  condemnation,  or  else  unreal  in 
their  praise.  The  minister  of  Christ  becomes  either  a 
judge  or  a  eulogist,  and  the  congregation  before  him 
are  apt  to  be  a  jury  of  critics  rather  than  an  assemblage 
of  mourners.  On  the  one  hand  are  those  whose  grief 
makes  them  eager  for  commendations,  the  want  of 
which  breeds  resentment  if  they  are  not  spoken  ;  while 
on  the  other  are  those  whose  less  interested  but  per- 
haps not  less  prejudiced  judgments  denounce  or  deride 
such  commendations,  if  they  are. 

Most  wisely,  therefore,  does  the  Church  use  one  com- 
mon Office  for  all  her  dead,  leaving  scarce  any  discretion 
to  her  ministry,  and  uttering  one  uniform  voice  to  her 
people.  Her  language  is  general,  not  specific.  She 
writes  as  Inspiration  has  written  before  her,  "  Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord ; "  but  she  utters  no 


Commemorative  of  John  David   Wolfe.  75 

verdict  of  application  in  connection  with  their  use.  She 
speaks  words  of  Christian  hope  ;  but  they  are  coupled 
with  the  Scriptural  conditions  of  all  Christian  hope.  Hers 
is  not  a  heathen,  but  a  Christian  burial ;  and  its  lan- 
guage, as  Dr.  Vaughan  has  admirably  said,  in  defending 
the  English  burial  service,  is  language  which,  said,  as  it 
only  can  be  said,  over  a  baptized  disciple  of  Christ, 
"  ought  to  be  true  of  such  an  one,  if  it  is  not. "  In  a 
word,  it  is  the  language  of  Christian  faith  and  trust ;  and 
while  it  is  utterly  devoid  of  any  specific  application  of 
its  very  general  terms,  we  feel  that  its  tone  is  only  what 
the  tone  of  anything  save  a  heathen  burial  ought  to  be. 

And  yet,  when  we  come  to  use  it,  we  recognize,  as  I 
have  already  intimated,  what  a  really  tremendous  differ- 
ence thei'e  may  be  in  even  the  Church's  funerals.  As 
with  Stephen's  burial  by  the  elder  Church,  there  are  the 
same  preliminaries,  the  same  customs,  the  same  words, 
and  yet,  as  there,  there  may  be  the  widest  and  most 
radical  difference  in  what  those  words  and  customs  ex- 
press. Have  we  not  all  witnessed  funerals  Avhere  even 
the  sublime  ritual  of  the  Church  seemed  powerless  to 
touch  the  heart  or  lift  the  thoughts  ?  The  pathetic 
words  of  prophetic  confidence,  of  divine  assurance,  of  pa- 
tient acquiescence,  the  incomparable  argument,  the 
pleading  entreaty,  the  hopeful  committal,  the  fervent 
thanksgiving,  have  alike  fallen  upon  the  ear,  only  to 
leave  behind  them  a  sense  of  ghastly  and  painful  incon- 
gruity. Christian  symbols  stood  around  ;  flowers,  cun- 
ningly fashioned  into  emblems  of  faith  and  hope, 
bloomed  upon  the  bier,  but  all  the  while  our  thoughts 


76  .  Way  marks. 

have  been  full  of  their  utter  meaninglessness.  The 
trumpet  tones  of  that  grand  demonstration  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  resurrection  which  Saint  Paul  pours  forth  in 
his  epistle  to  the  church  at  Corinth  fall  upon  our  hear- 
ing, but  in  vain.  With  utmost  charity,  with  every  will- 
ingness to  leave  the  vanished  life  in  the  hands  of  a  Love 
at  once  deeper  and  wiser  than  ours,  we  cannot  bind  that 
life  and  the  Church's  tones  together.  Somehow,  they  do 
not  fit  into,  and  form  a  part  of,  each  other.  Verily, 
"  Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord  ;  for  they 
rest  from  their  labors."  But  if  they  have  not  lived  in 
the  Lord,  nor  labored  for  Him  —  We  may  say  these 
questions  are  useless  ;  but  we  cannot  help  asking 
them. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  other  funerals  where  we 
use  precisely  the  same  ritual ;  where  there  is  no  diversity 
in  usage  or  custom  from  what  is  wonted,  unless  it  be 
in  the  direction  of  greater  simplicity  ;  where  merely  the 
Church's  appointed  words  are  said,  and  no  others,  and 
yet  where  the  emotions  of  our  own  hearts  and  the  very 
atmosphere  of  the  whole  occasion  are  utterly  and  wholly 
different.  There  is  deep  and  wide-spread  sorrow,  but 
it  is  a  grief  gilded  with  light.  We  listen  to  the  words 
of  inspired  hope  and  promise,  and,  as  we  lift  our  eyes 
from  the  bier  before  us,  lo !  the  clouds  are  parted,  and 
we  see  how,  to  a  Christian,  the  grave  is  only  a  low- 
browed portal,  through  which,  bending  as  he  passes, 
he  emerges  into  larger  life  and  freer.  The  Apostle's 
words,  in  that  which  forms  the  Church's  burial  Lesson, 
are  no  longer  a  mere  argument,  a  piece  of  dialectic  skill ; 


Commemorative  of  John  David   Wolfe.  11 

they  are  a  heaven-inspired  prophecy  and  revelation , 
and,  mounting  step  by  step  in  thought  with  him  as 
he  advances,  we  cry  at  last,  in  his  own  words,  even 
out  of  the  valley  of  our  bitter  grief,  "  Thanks  be  to 
God,  for  death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory  1 "  Such  a 
funeral  service  has  taken  place  within  these  walls 
since  we  last  gathered  here,  and  was  marked  by 
features  so  signal  and  exceptional,  that  to  fail  to 
note  them  would  be  to  miss  the  significance  of  one  of  the 
most  suggestive  assemblages  which  these  walls  have  ever 
embraced.  1  have  seen  children  belonging  to  public 
institutions  present  on  such  occasions,  when  a  benefactor 
had  been  called  away  ;  but  1  never  before  saw  little  chil- 
dren weeping  for  the  death  of  one  who  in  age  stood  at  a 
remove  from  them  of  all  but  four-score  years.  I  have 
seen  the  clergy  gathered  to  do  honor  to  men  in  public 
life  ;  but  I  do  not  think  I  ever  saw  so  large  a  body  of  the 
clergy,  of  every  shade  of  opinion,  gathered  in  attendance 
upon  the  funeral  of  a  layman  who  never  left  the  most 
retired  walks  of  private  life.  I  have  seen  institutions  of 
charity  largely  represented  on  such  occasions  ;  but  I 
doubt  whether  there  have  been  many  occasions  in  the 
entire  history  of  this  community  where  representatives 
of  such  varied  and  diverse  enterprises,  homes  and  ref- 
uges, hospitals  and  asylums,  museums  of  art  and  science 
and  literature,  schools  and  shelters  and  colleges,  nay, 
the  friends  of  the  dumb  brute  even,  as  well  as  of  neg- 
lected or  over-driven  human  beings,  were  gathered  in 
such  numbers,  or  with  such  unmistakable  evidences  of 
feeling. 


78  Waymarhs. 

Why  was  it  ?  Was  it  because  he  to  whom  I  now 
refer  was  a  rich  man  ?  On  the  contrary,  rich  men  are 
no  novelty  nor  rarity  in  New  York  ;  and  whatever  may 
be  the  respect  which  mere  wealth  inspires  while  its 
possessor  is  living,  we  all  know  that  nothing  is  more 
powerless  to  secure  the  genuine  and  unbought  homage 
of  love  when  he  is  dead.  We  are  said  to  be  great  wor- 
shippers of  money  in  America ;  but  it  is  at  once  an  in- 
structive and  a  cheering  fact  that  the  mere  possession  of 
money  alone  goes  but  a  very  little  way  to  endear  its 
possessor  to  the  esteem  and  regard  of  his  kind.  Rich 
men  die  in  our  great  cities  every  day,  and  dying, 

"  Vanish  out  of  sight 
And  are  forgotten ;  " 

but  here  was  a  private  citizen  whose  wealth  was  not 
greater  than  that  of  many  others  around  him,  and  yet 
the  sense  of  whose  loss,  betraying  itself  as  it  did  in  the 
exceptional  and  almost  pathetic  character  of  his  obse- 
quies, will,  I  venture  to  declare,  go  on  deepening  and 
increasing  as  the  days  and  months  go  by. 

Again  I  ask.  Why  was  it  ?  It  will  be  answered  more 
confidently  and  more  generally  perhaps,  "-  Because  it 
was  not  merely  the  loss  of  one  intrusted  with  wealth, 
but  the  loss  of  one  who  freely  gave  of  that  wealth  to 
every  good  and  Christ-like  cause  ;  one  who  scattered  his 
benefactions  with  a  royal  hand,  and  who  knew  no  stint 
in  the  measure  of  his  gifts,  or  the  range  of  their 
objects.  " 

And  as  a  partial  explanation  of  so  wide-spread  and  un- 
wonted a  sense  of  bereavement,  this  is  undoubtedly  true. 


Commemorative  of  John  David   Wolfe.  79 

Mr.  John  David  Wolfe  was  a  man  of  catholic  benevo- 
lence, and  of  wide-reaching  and  comprehensive  gifts. 
Some  men,  situated  as  he  was,  would  have  touched  the 
great  circle  of  religious  and  philanthropic  charities 
strongly,  but  at  a  few  points.  He  never  did  anything 
penuriously  ;  but  at  the  same  time  his  range  was  al- 
most boundless.  If  he  had  "  pet "  charities,  they  did 
not  shut  others,  less  engaging  or  less  romantic,  from  out 
the  range  of  his  vision.  He  saw  with  as  vivid  a  discern- 
ment the  claims  of  the  cause  of  Christ  on  the  coast  of 
Cape  Palmas  as  he  saw  the  needs  of  neglected  and  un- 
taught children  in  our  own  crowded  streets. 

And  yet  it  was  something  more  than  the  profuseness 
or  catholicity  of  his  charities  which  so  greatly  endeared 
him  to  others  when  living,  and  which  makes  him  so 
unaffectedly  lamented  now  that  he  is  dead.  It  was 
rather  the  rare  and  happy  combination  in  him  of  great 
practical  wisdom,  of  habitually  sound  discrimination,  of 
a  warm  and  generous  and  sympathetic  heart,  with  untir- 
ing activity  in  carrying  out  its  impulses.  His  benefac- 
tions were  freighted  with  good-will,  and  his  habitual 
liberality  won  its  choicest  perfume  from  the  personal 
interest,  and  constant  and  painstaking  anxiety  for  the 
welfare  and  succor  of  others,  which  always  and  every- 
where went  with  it.  I  doubt  whether  any  other  man  in 
the  community  gave  so  much  time  to  visits  among  our 
public  and  private  institutions  of  charity  as  did  he  ;  and 
I  certainly  have  not  been  privileged  to  meet  any  one 
who  was  so  thorouo^hlv  at  home  among;  them.  He  knew 
almost  every  physician,  nurse,  attendant,  and,  in  many 


80  Wat/marks. 

institutions,  even  their  patients.  When  he  entered  such 
homes  for  destitute  childhood  as  St.  Barnabas'  House 
or  the  Sheltering  Arms,  the  shouts  of  welcome  that 
greeted  him,  and  the  thronging  of  little  ones  about  him 
was  a  spectacle  never  to  be  forgotten.  It  was  a  devo- 
tion unpurchasable  by  money,  and  it  was  the  only  thing 
that  1  ever  greatly  envied  him.  Children  intuitively 
and  instinctively  recognized  and  loved  him,  and  their 
faces  reflected  the  tenderness  and  benignity  that  shone 
upon  them  from  his  own,  with  a  warmth  and  kindliness 
that  could  not  be  mistaken.  I  owe  to  him,  almost  ex- 
clusively, my  personal  knowledge  of  the  charities  of 
New  York ;  and,  as  1  remember  how  it  was  his  custom 
to  go  among  them,  especially  on  seasons  so  exclusively 
devoted,  ordinarily,  to  private  festivity  as  Christmas  and 
Thanksgiving  day,  I  do  not  wonder  that  one  who  knew 
and  valued  him  most  warmly  said  to  me  the  other  day, 
"  We  have  no  one  to  take  his  place  among  the  children." 

It  was  this  same  spirit  of  warm,  personal  interest,  and 
of  painstaking  and  discriminating  charity,  which  marked 
his  benefactions  when  they  took  a  wider  range.  More 
than  any  other  layman  in  the  whole  history  of  our 
American  Church,  Mr.  Wolfe  was  concerned  in  laying 
its  broad  and  deep  foundations  in  our  distant  West. 

The  dioceses  of  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Kansas,  Iowa, 
Utah,  Nevada,  and  Oregon  owe  more  to  his  gifts  and 
personal  interest  than  to  those  of  any  other  layman.  In 
some  of  them,  almost  the  whole  educational  structure  of 
the  diocese  was  his  exclusive  work.  Here  at  home  this 
was  but  little  known,  for  Mr.  Wolfe's  benefactions  were 


Commemorative  of  John  David    Wolfe.  81 

as  free  from  ostentation  as  they  were  princely  in  meas- 
ure ;  but  the  missionary  bishops  of  this  Church  have 
sustained  a  loss  in  his  departure  which  is  simply  and 
utterly  irreparable.  1  dread  to  hear  the  cry  of  grief  and 
dismay  which  I  know  is  already  on  the  way  to  me  from 
those  far-distant  frontiers.  The  valiant  hearts  that  are 
fighting  there,  almost  single-handed,  for  the  Master,  will 
know  no  keener  pang  than  that  which  has  come  to  them 
with  the  tidings  that  their  friend  and  fellow-worker  is 
no  more. 

For  it  was  because,  as  I  have  already  implied,  he  was 
so  truly  this  last,  that  he  will  be  most  of  all  missed.  It 
is  a  very  interesting,  and  to  me  a  very  precious  fact, 
that,  while  Mr.  Wolfe  had  very  strong  and  decided  con- 
victions of  his  own  on  all  points  of  Church  doctrine  and 
polity,  this  did  not  exclude  from  his  sympathy  and  in- 
terest men  who  often  widely  differed  from  him,  so  long 
as  they  were  men,  and  men  in  earnest.  He  was  not 
hasty  in  his  judgments,  nor  impulsive  in  his  confidences  ; 
but  when  he  was  once  persuaded  that  a  missionary 
bishop  or  presbyter  was  honestly  working  for  Christ, 
and  when  he  saw  that  the  opening  was  a  good  one,  it 
was,  with  him,  enough.  He  exercised  the  same  pru- 
dence in  making  a  charitable  investment  that  he  did  in 
making  a  business  investment,  and  the  schools  and 
churches  which  he  reared  now  stand  in  flourishing  pros- 
perity to  witness  at  once  to  his  wisdom  and  his  liberal- 
ity. His  correspondence  was  large  and  various,  and  he 
kept  himself  constantly  informed  of  the  interests  of  the 
church  of  Christ  and  Christian  education  on  our  most 

6 


82  Way  marks. 

distant  outposts.  Who  can  wonder  that  he  made  him- 
self widely  felt,  or  that,  now  that  he  is  gone,  he  will  be 
widely  and  sorely  missed  ? 

One  of  the  most  interesting  illustrations  of  his  wis- 
dom and  discrimination,  in  co-operating  in  the  mis- 
sionary work  of  the  Church,  is  to  be  found  in  a  little 
pamphlet  known  as  the  "  Mission  Service,"  a  compilation 
made  and  published  by  himself,  and  issued  in  English, 
French,  German,  Italian,  and  Spanish.  For  twenty 
years  the  Church  has  been  discussing  the  question 
whether  it  could  safely  allow  its  ministers  some  slight 
liberty  in  modifying  the  order  or  abbreviating  the  length 
of  her  services,  and  up  to  this  day  has,  with  a  timidity 
and  stiffness  which  do  her  little  honor,  practically  re- 
fused such  liberty.  Mr.  Wolfe,  with  a  courage  and 
practical  good  sense  which  were  alike  worthy  of  the  emer- 
gency, cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  himself  preparing  and 
printing  such  an  abbreviated  service.  I  have  ne^^r  yet 
heard  of  any  bishop  or  presbyter  who  refused  to  give  it 
practical  approval  by  making  use  of  it;  and  among  those 
who  have  demanded  it  most  eagerly,  in  their  missionary 
operations,  have  been  some  of  the  most  unbending 
churchmen,  whether  prelates  or  presbyters,  in  the  land. 
Hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  of  it  have  been  scat- 
tered from  Maine  to  New  Mexico,  educating  strangers 
to  her  fold  to  love  and  long  for  the  prayers  of  the 
Church,  and  to  accept  thankfully  and  reverently  a  fuller 
ritual,  when  at  length  it  could  be  permanently  provided 
for  them. 

I  may  not,  within  these  limits,. undertake  to  speak  of 


Commemorative  of  John  David    Wolfe.  83 

Mr.  Wolfe  as  I  should  wish  to,  in  his  relations  to  this 
parish,  and  I  d|^re  not  trust  myself  to  speak  of  him  as  I 
would,  in  his  more  intimate  relations  to  myself.  The 
senior  officer  of  Grace  Parish,  he  was  its  faithful  and 
unswerving  friend  and  servant  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century.  A  member  of  its  vestry  when  the  present 
edifice  was  erected,  his  connection  with  that  body  con- 
tinued, without  interruption,  until  the  day  of  his  death ; 
and  it  is  but  a  few  weeks  since  he  came  to  me  to  submit 
a  plan  for  the  future  of  the  parish,  which  showed  how 
alive  he  was  to  the  importance  of  rightly  shaping  that 
future,  though  he  could  not  hope  to  share  in  it  himself. 
A  man  of  four- score  years,  he  yet  took  an  active  and  dis- 
criminating interest  in  every  living  question,  and  in  his 
relations  to  the  vestry  of  this  church,  as  well  as  out  of 
it,  he  was  singularly  free  from  that  coldly  retrospective 
conservatism  which  settles  torpidly  upon  the  lees  of  the 
past,  and  is  equally  indifferent  to  the  wants  of  the  pres- 
ent and  the  exigencies  of  the  future.  Above  all,  he  was 
distinguished  by  an  unswerving  loyalty  to  the  interests 
of  the  parish,  and  to  every  least  obligation  which  his 
official  connection  with  it  involved ;  and  the  harmony 
and  unanimity  of  official  action  which  have  long  been 
the  rare  and  honorable  distinction  of  the  corporation 
found  in  him  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  steadfast 
illustrations.  If  I  or  others  differed  from  him  at  any 
time  concerning  certain  lines  of  parochial  policy  it 
never,  for  one  moment,  made  him  obstructive  in  his 
action,  or  cold  or  reserved  in  his  bearing.  He  never 
took  advantage  of  his  official  position  to  seek  to  coerce 


84  Waymarhs. 

the  judgment  or  action  of  others  ;  and  where  he  could 
not  approve  a  certain  course  himself,  he  acquiesced 
promptly  and  cheerfully  in  the  prevailing  opinion  of 
those  with  whom  he  was  associated. 

If  1  were  to  attempt  to  speak  of  him  as  I  knew  him 
personally,  I  would  have  to  trench  upon  the  privacy  of 
his  home,  and  to  speak  of  some  things  almost  too  sacred 
for  utterance.  But  I  may  at  least  venture  to  declare 
that  all  that  was  best  and  most  ena-aoinff  in  him  was 
deepened  and  consecrated  by  the  grace  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ.  He  was  a  consistent  and  devout  disciple  of 
the  Master,  and  his  reverent  bearing  here  in  this  holy 
house,  and  his  godly  walk  and  conversation  elsewhere, 
were  too  clear  and  unequivocal  in  their  testimony  to  be 
mistaken.  Not  naturally  impulsive  or  emotional  in  his 
temperament,  an  eager  business  man  for  many  years 
of  his  life,  the  grace  of  Christ  so  wrought  upon  him 
as  steadily  to  enlai'ge  his  kindly  heart,  and  open,  more 
and  more  widely,  his  generous  and  untiring  hand ;  and 
when  at  last  he  lay  down  to  die,  his  thoughts  were 
still  busy  with  schemes  of  good  for  others,  and  almost 
his  last  words  to  me  were  concerning  those  schemes 
and  his  own  earnest  desire  for  their  speedy  realization, 
"xind  so  he  fell  asleep,  and  was  not,  for  God  took 
him." 

Who  among  us  will  not  bless  God  for  a  life  so  beauti- 
ful and  benignant  ?  Men  of  wealth,  young  men  whose 
earnest  and  hourly  ambition  it  is  that  you  may  be  men 
of  wealth,  see  in  such  a  life,  I  pray  you,  the  portraiture 
of  a  Christian  stewardship.     We  may  pile  up  vast  and 


Commemorative  of  John  David    Wolfe.  85 

exceptional  fortunes,  we  may  startle  other  men,  alike  by 
the  boldness  and  by  the  success  of  our  business  ventures  ; 
we  may  excel  ever  so  conspicuously  in  the  mad  race 
for  gain  and  moneyed  precedence,  sacrificing  rest  and 
health  and  strength  in  the  strife.  When  the  struggle 
is  over  what  will  it  all  be  worth  if  we  have  never  used 
this  mighty  agency  of  good  or  of  evil  for  Christ  and 
for  God  ?  On  a  tombstone  in  an  Italian  churchyard, 
as  1  have  been  told,  there  is  this  inscription :  "  Here 
lies  Estelle,  who,  having  transported  a  large  fortune  to 
Heaven,  in  acts  of  charity,  has  gone  thither  to  enjoy  it." 
Is  not  this  to  use  our  stewardship,  whether  of  wealth, 
of  intellect,  or  of  opportunity,  at  once  Christianly  and 
wisely  ?  Blessed  privilege,  to  spend  and  be  spent  for 
the  Master !  Ours  be  it  to  imitate  their  "  good  exam- 
ple "  who,  whatsoever  were  the  talents  which  their  Lord 
had  given  them,  have  so  used  those  talents  that,  at  the 
last,  their  ears  shall  hear  their  Lord  declare,  "  Thou 
hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  I  will  make  thee 
ruler  over  many  things ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy 
Lord  !  " 


VI. 

SERMON   COMMEMORATIVE  OF  ADAM   NORRIE. 

/  myself  have  seen  the  ungodly  in  poiver,  and  flourishing 
like  a  gree7i  bay-tree.  J  went  by,  and  lo  !  he  ivas  gone  ;  / 
sought  him,  but  his  place  could  no  more  be  found. 

Mark  the  perfect  man  and  behold  the  upright.  For  the  end 
of  that  man  is  peace.  —  Psalm  xxxvii.  36-38. 

If  there  were  no  other  evidence  that  the  Bible  came 
from  God,  we  might  find  it  in  that  inspired  insight  with 
which  it  binds  together  the  two  worlds  of  matter  and 
of  mind,  —  the  realm  of  nature  and  the  realm  of  man. 
"  I  have  seen  the  wicked  in  power,"  says  David, ''  and 
flourishing  like  a  green  bay-tree ; "  and  we  have  in  the 
words  a  perfect  image  of  something  of  apparent  vitality, 
strong,  lusty,  and  obtrusive,  but  essentially  short-lived 
and  evanescent.  For  though  we  may  not  be  certain  just 
what  the  writer  means  here  by  a  "  bay-tree,"  it  is  plain 
enough  that  he  has  in  mind  some  one  of  those  hasty- 
growing  shrubs  in  which  the  East  is  so  rich,  which 
shoot  from  their  seed  in  a  night,  and  which  assert  an 
apparent  vitality  that  is  seemingly  invincible.  We  all 
know  them  here  in  the  West.  Though  they  may  not 
bear  the  same   names,  there  are  in   every   forest  and 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  87 

garden  these  quick-growing  plants  that  swiftly  over- 
shadow their  humbler  neighbors,  and  which  assert  them- 
selves by  a  kind  oi  domineering  and  extinguishing  pre- 
eminence. And  we  kno\y,  too,  that  these  are  the 
growths  that  have  no  staying  power.  The  frost  nips 
them.  The  sun  scorches  them.  The  wind  uproots 
them  ;  and  then  the  gardener  gathers  them  up  and 
throws  them  over  the  wall.  "  We  go  by,  and  lo  !  they 
are  gone.  We  seek  them,  but  their  places  can  no  more 
be  found  I  " 

Is  there  anything  that  answers  more  precisely  to  this 
than,  for  example,  that  intellectual  quickness  in  which  our 
time  is  so  rich,  and  which  seems  to  achieve  so  much  ? 
Was  there  ever  in  all  the  world  such  nimble-wittedness 
as  makes  itself  heard  by  a  thousand  voices  and  pens 
to-day  ?  What  a  gift  our  modern  literature  i^eveals  of 
quick  growth  and  large  and  self-asserting  expansion  ! 
How  it  plants  itself  in  all  the  paths  of  thought  and 
hurls  its  keen  shafts  of  criticism  at  all  things  sacred 
and  secular !  Here  is  some  one  whom  yesterday  nobody 
had  ever  heard  of.  To-day  he  is  dictating  "  leaders," 
indicting  a  creed,  expounding  a  philosophy,  or  inaugu- 
rating a  school  of  reform.  Stop  a  moment,  and  think 
of  the  teachers  of  science,  of  art,  of  theology  (or  of 
something  that  they  called  theology),  who  have  come 
and  gone  since  you  and  I  were  children  !  Where  are 
they  ?  Where  are  the  systems  that  they  propounded^ 
the  seeds  that  they  sowed,  the  trees  whose  leaves  they 
were  so  sure  were  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  ?  The 
question  is  easily  answered.     In  every  library  there  is 


88  Waymarks, 

a  rubbish  shelf.  Climb  up  to  it,  if  you  will,  and  read 
the  titles  of  the  books  that  you  will  find  there,  and  ask 
yourself  if  by  any  chance  anybody  will  ever  read  them 
again,  except  as  curiosities  of  literature  or  encyclopae- 
dias of  human  folly.  They  grew,  they  spread,  they 
challenged  men's  wonder  and  admiration.  And  then, 
m  a  night,  their  power  was  gone,  their  leaf  withered, 
and  out  of  the  places  that  knew  them  they  have  van- 
ished forever. 

But  the  Psalmist  reminds  us  that  that  world  which, 
in  contradistinction  to  the  world  of  matter,  we  call  the 
world  of  mind,  or  of  man,  includes  not  only  an  intel- 
lectual but  a  moral  element.  Men  are  not  only  clever 
or  stupid,  they  are  good  or  bad.  And  it  is  not  of  the 
clever  people  that  he  is  chiefly  speaking  here,  but  of 
the  wicked  people.  "  I  have  seen  the  wicked  flourish- 
ing like  a  green  bay-tree."  And  who  of  us  has  not  seen 
that  too  ?  The  prosperity  of  people  who  do  not  deserve 
to  be  prosperous,  —  is  there  any  commoner  spectacle, 
or,  as  it  seems  to  most  of  us,  more  perplexing  than 
that  ?  Indeed  there  are  plenty  of  persons  who  are 
daily  saying,  in  substance,  "  Do  not  tell  me  that  God 
is  a  good  God,  and  that  He  is  on  the  side  of  righteous- 
ness. Do  not  tell  me  that  there  is  a  God  at  all.  I 
know  better !  A  Being  who  was  great  enough  to  rule 
the  world,  and  who  was  on  the  side  of  virtue,  would 
not  suffer  virtue  to  walk  and  vice  to  ride.  If  He  ever 
looks  down  on  the  world  that  you  say  He  has  made,  He 
sees  selfish  power  lifting  itself  into  the  high  places,  and 
honest  poverty  ground  into  the  dust  under  its  chariot- 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  89 

wheels.  He  sees  an  ignoble  nature  drawing  to  itself 
all  the  juices  of  that  associated  life  in  the  midst  of 
which  it  lives,  and  enriching  itself  at  the  cost  of  virtu- 
ous and  defenceless  weakness.  And  he  suffers  it  to  be 
so.     He  never  interferes  to  hinder  it !  " 

Stop,  I  beseech  you,  right  there,  my  brother,  and  ask 
yourself  whether  that  is  true.  On  the  contrary,  is  it 
not  true  that  just  as  certainly  as  there  are  physical 
tornadoes  in  which  the  bay-tree  and  its  kind  are  torn 
up  by  the  roots  and  blown  away  into  everlasting  oblivion 
and  nothingness,  so  there  are  moral  tornadoes,  irregu- 
lar and  long-delayed  it  may  be,  but  coming  in  the  his- 
tory of  every  nation,  every  community,  every  man,  when 
the  thing  that  is  not  rooted  in  righteousness  comes  in 
its  turn  to  be  swept  from  what  seemed  to  be  its  strong 
foundations,  and  made  to  vanish  as  though  it  had  not 
been  ?  Verily,  I  think  if  we  have  never  been  able  to 
own  that  before,  we  might  have  the  candor  to  own  it 
this  morning.  No  people  ever  had  more  wholesome 
illustration  of  the  existence  of  moral  forces  in  society 
than  we  have  had  in  this  very  land  and  commonwealth 
of  ours.  Whatever  else  is  uncertain,  this  is  certain : 
that  no  bad  thing,  no  matter  out  of  what  noble  tradi- 
tions and  policies  it  may  seem  to  have  grown,  has  any 
power  of  survival,  when  once  it  has  been  false  to  those 
great  moral  ideas  which  were  originally  its  strength  and 
glory. 

And  this,  which  is  true  of  policies,  is  supremely  true 
of  men.  Does  any  one  say  that  wickedness  is  stronger 
than  goodness,  and  that  the  thing  that  succeeds  is  the 


90  Wat/marks. 

thing  that  has  the  elements  of  success  in  it,  —  popu- 
larity, social  following,  wealth,  force  of  will,  cleverness, 
everything  or  anything  that  goes  to  make  success  ? 
Then  I  ask  him  simply  to  sit  down  for  a  little,  and  imi- 
tate the  example  of  the  writer  of  this  Psalm.  He  was 
an  old  man.  He  tell  us  so  himself,  in  an  earlier  verse 
when  he  writes,  "  1  have  been  young  and  now  am  old  ; " 
and  he  is  not  delivering  his  opinion  from  the  oracular 
standpoint  of  the  man  of  twenty-five  or  thirty,  who, 
having  seen  his  first  ideals  shattered,  is  settling  down 
to  the  cynical  faith  that  society  is  a  fellowship  of  false- 
hood, and  that  the  prosperous  man  is  the  man  who  is 
the  shrewdest  and  the  strongest  and  the  most  hard- 
hearted. No  1  He  has  lived  through  that  earlier  period 
of  distrust  of  goodness,  —  it  was  the  period  in  which,  as 
he  tells  us,  he  said  in  his  haste,  "  all  men  are  liars,"  — 
and  he  has  come  to  that  loftier  table-land  which  is 
reached  with  a  ripe  old  age,  and  from  which  he  can 
look  back  on  a  lifelong  and  thoughtful  experience. 
And  from  this  standpoint  it  is  that  he  says,  "  I  have 
seen  the  ungodly  in  great  power,  and  flourishing  like 
a  green  bay -tree.  But  I  went  by,  and  lo  I  he  was 
gone.  I  sought  him,  but  his  place  was  nowhere  to  be 
found ! " 

To  you,  0  sons  of  men,  I  call  this  morning.  Answer 
me  out  of  your  own  mature  experience,  is  David  right  or 
wrong  ?  You  have  lived,  let  us  say,  in  this  community, 
or  some  other.  It  is  no  matter.  You  have  seen  the 
rise  from  obscure  beginnings  of  many  men  who  have 
come  at  length  to  be  in  great  power.     Some  of  them 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  91 

were  men  about  whom  you  could  not  speak  certainly ; 
but  of  some  of  them  you  could.  There  was  no  doubt 
about  their  aims,  or  motives,  or  character.  They  were 
wicked  men.     What  has  become  of  them  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  says  David,  "  Mark  the  perfect 
man  and  behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is 
peace."  Hold  fast  here  to  the  image  with  which  the 
writer  begins.  It  is  an  image  borrowed  from  the  growth 
of  a  tree.  There  are  things  that  grow  superficially,  and 
then  there  are  trees,  that  have  roots  ;  and  there  are  men 
who  are  just  like  such  trees.  David  calls  them  perfect 
men,  not  because  they  were  without  a  flaw,  —  there  are 
flaws  enough  in  the  bark  of  an  oak  if  you  will  look  for 
them,  —  but  because  they  live  their  life  after  the  law  of 
a  perfect  ideal.  An  oak  is  the  noblest  thing  of  its  kind, 
and  that  which  strikes  us  in  it  is  that  in  root  and  trunk 
and  branch  it  is  so  intrinsically  grand  and  steadfast. 
Men  have  worshipped  it  as  a  symbol  of  strength,  and 
they  might  have  worshipped  it  as  a  symbol  of  perfec- 
tion. It  is  built  on  a  great  scale,  and  it  lives  in  obe- 
dience to  a  high  ideal,  or  as  we  prefer  to  say  in  nature, 
to  a  great  law. 

And  there  are  men  who  are  like  oaks.  Faults  they 
may  have,  for  they  are  human,  but  they  are  domi- 
nated by  a  Perfect  Ideal.  His  life  rules  theirs.  It  is 
that  in  which  theirs  is  rooted,  and  by  virtue  of  it  they 
endure.  "  Mark  the  perfect  man,"  —  the  man  who 
believes  in  a  perfect  law  and  a  perfect  Friend  and 
Saviour,  and  who  aims  to  be  like  Him,  and  in  him  you 
will  behold  the  upright,  —  something  that  stands  erect, 


92  Waymarhs. 

that  has  columnar  qualities,  and  that  has  not  only 
leaves  but  roots.  Such  men  do  not  disappear.  They 
die,  but  their  virtues  live.  And  when  they  die  the  cur- 
tain falls  upon  a  serene  and  peaceful  hope,  the  pupil 
passing  out  of  the  school-room  into  the  Head  Master's 
house,  the  ripe  scholar  in  the  university  of  human  dis- 
cipline taking  at  last  his  good  degree. 

It  is  of  such  an  one  that  I  would  fain  speak  this 
morning  and  so  reassure  your  faith  and  my  own  in  the 
face  of  a  great  and  irreparable  loss  which  within  the  past 
few  months  has  come  to  this  church.  By  virtue  of  his 
office  as  senior  warden  of  this  parish,  Mr.  Adam  Norrie 
was  known  to  almost  every  one  in  this  congregation ; 
which,  when  he  passed  away  last  June,  must  have  read 
with  something  of  surprise  of  the  great  age  to  which  he 
had  attained.  His  presence  was  so  fresh  and  vital,  his 
step  was  so  quick  and  elastic,  the  light  that  played  in 
his  eyes  had  so  much  sometimes  that  was  almost  boy- 
ish in  its  vivacity,  that  few  persons  would  have  sus- 
pected that  when  Mr.  Norrie  left  us  he  was  nearly 
ninety  years  of  age.  For  myself,  I  lived  to  see  in  these 
physical  tokens  the  triumph  of  that  inward  law  of 
renewal  which  gives  to  a  Christian  old  age  a  perennial 
freshness,  and  which  tells  of  a  peace  of  mind  and  a 
manly  simplicity  of  faith  that  blossom  out  thus  with  the 
tokens  of  a  life  that  is  immortal.  Mr.  Norrie  never 
grew  old,  and  so  when  he  passed  away  there  were  some 
of  us  to  whom  his  departure  seemed  something  to  which 
we  could  not  soon  or  easily  become  accustomed. 

It  belongs  to  us  to-day  to  remhid  ourselves,  in  view 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  98 

of  that  departure,  of  the  positive  witness  which  is  to  be 
found  in  such  a  life  as  his  to  the  words  of  this  thirty- 
seventh  Psahn.  It  is  due  to  him,  to  his  place  in  this 
community,  to  his  services  to  this  church,  that  we 
should  recall  the  story  of  his  career,  and  give  expression 
to  our  loving  admiration  of  his  personal  character. 

Mr.  Norrie  was  of  Scottish  birth  and  descent.  He 
was  born  in  the  year  1796,  in  Montrose,  Scotland,  and 
he  never  forgot  it.  He  went  in  early  life  to  Gottenburg, 
Sweden,  and  nine  years  later  he  came  to  New  York. 
But  he  never  grew  cold  to  the  land  or  the  city  of  his 
birth,  and  with  a  punctual  regularity  which  was  his  con- 
spicuous characteristic,  made  the  poor  of  his  native  city 
the  annual  recipients  of  his  thoughtful  bounty.  It 
shows  in  what  estimate  he  was  held  by  the  people  of  his 
birth-place  that  he  received  at  their  hands  the  gift  of 
the  freedom  of  the  city,  a  dignity  reserved  in  its  annals 
for  men  of  no  lower  rank  than  Richard  Cobden. 

Of  Mr.  Norrie's  career  as  a  merchant  in  New  York  I 
would  that  1  might  speak  at  length.  It  was  not  one 
wholly  without  reverses,  though  it  was  one  of  substan- 
tial and  permanent  success.  But  the  aspect  of  it  which 
may  chiefly  interest  us  here  is  that  which  reveals  to  us 
the  progress  of  a  Christian  merchant,  shrewd,  prudent, 
diligent  in  his  daily  business,  but,  better  than  all  this, 
dominated,  from  first  to  last  by  lofty  and  resolute  prin- 
ciples. Mr.  Norrie  came  speedily  to  be  known  in  New 
York  after  he  had  removed  here,  and  won  quickly  an 
honorable  and  eminent  position  among  New  York  mer- 
qhants.     But  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  it  was  sim- 


94  Waymarks, 

ply  true  of  him  that  no  one  ever  came  to  know  him, 
without  feeling  that  the  man  was  a  great  deal  more 
than  his  belongings,  and  that  his  personal  character  was 
one  of  exceptional  purity  and  nobleness. 

Such  a  man  had  great  opportunities  for  usefulness, 
and  he  did  not  neglect  them.  Thirty  years  ago  there 
was  living  in  this  city  a  clergyman  whose  name  will 
never  be  forgotten  in  this  community,  and  who  had  the 
rare  gift  of  drawing  to  himself  the  sympathy  and  co- 
operation of  earnest  Christian  laymen.  Dr.  Muhlenberg 
would  have  left  his  mark  upon  the  Church,  under  any 
circumstances,  but  he  would  never  have  been  able  to 
build  St.  Luke's  Hospital  and  found  St.  Jolmland  if  he 
had  not  been  able  also  to  dratr  to  his  side  such  men  as 
Robert  B.  Minturn,  and  John  David  Wolfe,  and  Adam 
Norrie.  Mr.  Norrie  became  the  Treasurer  of  St.  Luke's 
Hospital  from  the  outset,  and  his  absolute  identification 
with  its  work  continued  from  that  hour  until  his  death. 
Between  himself  and  Dr.  Muhlenberg  there  grew  up  a 
most  tender  and  intimate  friendship,  and  a  friend  to 
whose  graceful  pen  I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the  data 
of  his  life  records  how  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was  wont  to 
speak  of  Mr.  Norrie's  rare  qualities  of  head  and  heart, 
often  summing  up  the  whole  with  the  words,  "And  such 
a  gentleman  I  "  It  was  one  of  those  finer  touches  of 
which  Dr.  Muhlenberg  alone  was  capable ;  and  it  recalls 
that  rare  union  of  courtesy  with  dignity,  of  gentleness, 
and  often  playful  kindness,  with  uprightness  which 
make  Christian  manners  the  exponent  of  the  Christian 
man. 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  95 

It  was  owing  to  Mr.  Norrie's  association  with  Dr. 
Muhlenberg  in  the  work  of  St.  Luke's  Hospital  that  he 
came,  later,  to  share  with  him  the  large  responsibilities 
of  the  beautiful  charity  known  as  St.  Johnland.  An 
experiment  which  to  many  minds  seemed  wildly  vision- 
ary was  made,  through  the  munificent  co-operation  of 
those  personal  friends  of  Dr.  Muhlenberg  to  whom  I 
have  just  referred,  and  their  immediate  kindred,  a  sub- 
stantial success.  But  when  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was  taken 
away  from  the  head  of  St.  Johnland,  it  is  not  easy  to 
see  how  it  could  have  continued  its  work  if  it  had  been 
deprived  of  the  wise  counsel  and  unwearied  personal 
interest  of  Mr.  Norrie.  He  was  the  calm  adviser  in  all 
perplexities ;  the  gentle  healer  in  all  dissensions ;  the 
sympathizing  friend  in  all  discouragements.  When 
one  of  the  sisters  who  had  charge  of  the  work  at  St. 
Johnland,  was  robbed  in  the  cars  of  a  sum  of  money, 
she  received  it  back  again  a  few  days  later,  enclosed 
in  an  envelope  addressed  in  a  disguised  hand,  and 
containing  a  note  with  these  words :  "  If  he  had  known 
who  you  were  when  he  picked  your  pocket,  he  would 
not  have  been  guilty  of  so  sacrilegious  an  act,  and  he 
now  desires  to  make  restitution."  That  was,  I  im- 
agine, the  only  anonymous  letter  that  Mr.  Norrie  ever 
wrote ! 

But  all  the  while  that  he  lived  among  us  he  was 
making  a  permanent  record,  a  record  of  good  deeds, 
and  of  blameless  and  upright  living.  He  was  for 
more  than  fifty  years  a  communicant  of  this  church, 
and  from  first  to  fast  adorned  his  Christian  profession 


96  Waymarks. 

by  a  consistent  and  exemplary  walk  and  conversation. 
He  had  a  clear,  simple,  and  masculine  Christian  faith, 
which,  in  the  substance  of  it,  was  worthy  of  his  Scottish 
training  and  ancestry.  The  fogs  into  which  mere 
speculatists  find  their  way,  he  knew  nothing  of.  God 
was  a  present  reality  to  him  as  a  righteous  Governor 
and  a  loving  Father,  and,  in  those  sorrows  which  came 
to  him,  he  knew  what  it  was  to  lean,  in  a  faith  at  once 
manly  and  childlike,  on  the  arm  of  that  Elder  Brother, 
whose  cross  was  to  him  a  message,  first,  of  forgiveness, 
and  then  of  strength  and  of  hope  ! 

And  so  we  remember  him  to-day,  the  warm  heart, 
the  kindly  hand,  the  upright  and  honorable  man  of 
business,  the  trusted  counsellor,  and,  best  of  all,  the 
loyal  Christian  disciple.  This  community  will  miss 
him  at  many  a  Board  and  in  the  wise  conduct  of  many 
a  corporation  with  which  he  was  identified.  His  church 
will  miss  him  from  his  post  of  senior  warden,  in  which 
he  was  the  worthy  successor  of  Wolfe,  and  Aymar,  Bar- 
clay, and  Bradish,  and  others  who  have  passed  on  to 
their  reward.  The  home  and  kindred  to  whom  he  was  so 
much  will  miss  him  most  of  all.  But  to  us  and  to  them 
it  belongs  to  remember  that  nothing  that  is  really  es- 
sential in  such  a  man  has  perished.  The  peaceful 
departure  of  such  a  presence  is  not  death  but  advance- 
ment. We  know  that  it  survives  under  conditions  of 
enlarged  and  ennobled  activity.  And  meantime  its  in- 
fluence endures,  a  living  and  helpful  power,  and  will 
endure.  How  many  men  there  were  whom  Mr.  Norrie 
saw   as   they   came  —  and  went.     What  fortunes   and 


Commemorative  of  Adam  Norrie.  97 

what  reputations  were  made  and  lost  during  his  long 
life  in  this  community.  It  does  not  need  to  be  very  old 
to  recall  some  of  them  —  their  brilliant  promise,  their 
swift  rise,  and  seemingly  splendid  successes,  and  then 
the  end  —  tragic  sometimes,  but  always  significant  and 
inevitable.  Over  against  such  histories  there  stands  such 
a  life  as  his  whom  we  recall  to-day.  What  a  message 
in  it  for  young  men  in  New  York,  what  a  messasre  in  it 
for  all  of  us  who  are  tempted  to  mistake  short-lived 
success  for  enduring  growth,  and  sudden  prosperity  for 
the  priceless  treasure  of  an  unstained  personal  charac- 
ter !  In  the  presence  of  such  a  character  we  learn 
what  it  is  that  lasts,  and  remembering  in  what  faith  and 
prayer  it  was  nurtured  we  see  how  heaven's  law,  that 
runs  through  earth  and  air  and  sky,  is  one  and  is 
eternal.  The  life  that  lasts  is  the  life  that  has  roots. 
The  character  that  lives  and  grows  is  a  character  im- 
bedded in  righteousness.  Great  fortunes  may  crumble 
into  ruins.  Human  cleverness  may  be  beaten  with  its 
own  weapons.  The  triumphs  of  to-day  may  herald  the 
dishonor  of  to-morrow.  But  God  is  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting.  His  righteousness  endures,  and  the  man 
who  has  planted  himself  on  Him  shall  not  be  moved. 
The  winds  may  blow,  but  he  can  calmly  face  them.  The 
floods  may  arise,  but  he  can  defy  the  floods.  For  his 
feet  are  planted  upon  the  Rock,  and  that  Rock  is  the 
Rock  of  Ages.  Mark  the  perfect  man  and  behold  the 
upright,  for  ihe  end,  nay  the  beginning  and  the  middle 
and  the  end  alike  with  him,  are  peace. 


INTRODUCTORY  TO   A   PLEA   FOR   THE 
AMERICAN   SUNDAY. 

The  problem  of  higher  civilization  in  the  United  States 
is,  and  seems  likely  more  and  more  to  become,  a  problem  of 
assimilation.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  purpose  of  the 
founders  of  the  republic,  and  however  large  may  have  been 
the  dream  of  empire  which  they  cherished,  it  is  doubtful  if 
they  ever  anticipated  the  assemblage  on  these  shores  of  a 
multitude  so  heterogeneous  as  that  which  to-day  throngs 
them.  They  believed  that  they  were  escaping  from  certain 
forms  of  oppression,  indeed,  but  not  in  order  to  part  company 
with  that  whole  conception  of  social  order,  of  religious  faith, 
of  domestic  obligation  for  which  the  worship  and  habits  of 
their  forefathers  so  largely  stood.  If  anything  is  plain  in 
their  history  and  conduct  it  is  that  they  meant  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  State  in  reverence  and  upward  looking 
trust,  and,  as  conserving  these  things,  in  a  social  order 
which  conserved  sacred  days  and  places  and  a  due  recogni- 
tion of  their  enduring  relation  to  belief  and  conduct. 

It  has,  indeed,  been  attempted  to  show  that  even  in  the 
beginning  of  the  life  of  the  republic  this  was  only  partially 
true;  that  as,  in  fact,  as  a  recent  writer  has  striven  to  make 
out,  the  term  Anglo-Saxon  applies  only  in  a  very  limited 
and  partial  sense  to  those  whose  were  the  first  steps  in  the 
direction  of  a  more  completely  organized  State  on  this  con- 
tinent, so  there  was  from  the  beginning  a  great  variety  of 
traditions  as  to  those  institutions,  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
observance  of  the  Lord's-day,  concerning  which  the  tradi- 
tion is  commonly  supposed  to  have  been  so  uniform  and 
consistent. 

Undoubtedly  there  is  something  in  such  a  claim,  but  far 
less  than  those  who  make  it  would  have  us  believe.     There 


Introduction.  99 

were  indeed  Celts  as  well  as  Saxons,  Frenchmen  and  Irish- 
men as  well  as  Englishmen  and  Hollanders  among  those 
who  were  concerned  with  the  beginnings  in  the  English 
colonies.  But  that  last  jjhrase  describes  the  whole  situation 
in  a  way  with  which  only  a  disingenuous  logic  can  dis- 
semble. Those  who  colonized  these  shores,  — those  whose 
energy  and  daring  and  God-fearing  loyalty  to  their  own 
consciences  brought  here  the  men  and  the  manners  that  give 
to  this  New  World  for  many  a  long  day  its  best  repute,  — 
were  not  divided  nor  in  doubt  as  to  what  they  wanted  to  do, 
for  instance,  with  the  Lord's-day  or  the  ten  commandments. 

That  the  United  States  is  being  flooded,  to-day,  with 
multitudes  of  people  who,  from  one  cause  or  another  have  in 
other  lands  learned  to  be  profoundly  indifferent  to  either,  can- 
not for  one  moment  be  doubted.  That  such  persons  are  most 
impatient  of  those  restraints  which  prevent  them  from  dese- 
crating the  day  of  all  others  most  sacred  to  Christendom  as 
the  Lord's-day,  cannot  be  seriously  disputed.  It  was  in  the 
interest  of  its  defence  that  the  sermon  here  following,  on 
the  American  Sunday,  was  preached.  It  is  an  interesting 
and  suggestive  commentary  upon  its  deliver}^  that,  as  the 
preacher  was  subsequently  informed  (he  did  not  himself  see 
the  article  quoted),  the  leading  journal  of  perhaps  the  most 
numerous  foreign  element  in  Xew  York  gave  notice  to  the 
preacher  and  his  co-religionists,  of  the  intention  of  those 
for  whom  it  professed  to  speak  to  do  with  the  American 
Sunday  ''precisely  what  they  pleased."  Subsequent  events 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  that  threat  was  well  on  the  way 
towards  its  fulfilment  j  and  the  gradual  secularizing  of  the 
day  once  so  largely  consecrated  to  rest  and  worship  is  not 
the  least  grave  among  our  higher  social  problems. 

The  sermon  that  follows  was  preached  in  Grace  Church, 
New  York,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  May  19,  1878,  before  the 
New  York  Sabbath  Society. 


VII. 

A  PLEA   FOR  THE  AMERICAN   SUNDAY. 

He  that  regardeth  the  day,  regardeth  it  unto  the  Lord; 
and  he  that  regardeth  not  the  day,  to  the  Lord  he  doth 
not  regard  it.  —  Romans  xiv.  6. 

I  TAKE  these  words,  as  at  any  rate  a  point  of  departure, 
because  they  are  commonly  accounted  the  strongest 
argument  from  the  Book  which  we  honor  against  the 
day  which  equally  we  honor.  It  will  clear  the  air  if  we 
can  succeed  in  understanding  what  they  mean  and  how 
much  they  prove. 

We  are  usually  referred  to  them  as  conclusively  dis- 
posing of  Sunday.  It  is  urged  that  their  plain  meaning 
is  that  the  regarder  and  the  disregarder  of  any  partic- 
ular day  may  equally  be  influenced  by  a  devout  and 
reverent  motive.  And  if  this  be  true,  then  it  is  further 
urged  that  any  one  who  disregards  our  holy  day,  or 
Sunday,  may  be  as  truly  religious  as  he  who  observes 
it.  Nay  more,  it  is  claimed  that  the  observance  of  any 
particular  day  as  especially  sacred  or  holy  is  a  usage 
which  Saint  Paul  disesteems,  and  is  founded  upon  a 
principle  which  he  disowns. 

To  see  whether  this  is  so,  we  shall  do  well  to  look 
at  the  circumstances  under  which   these  words  of  the 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday.  101 

Apostle  were  written.  He  is  addressing,  you  will 
remember,  those  converts  from  among  the  Jews  who 
had  become  Christian  disciples,  ^'ow  what  was  the 
difficulty  in  the  minds  of  these  ?  It  was,  briefly,  that 
they  had  been  educated  to  observe  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
or  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,  as  sacred,  while  the 
Christian  converts  in  Rome,  who  were  converts,  not 
from  Judaism  but  from  Paganism,  had  been  educated 
to  follow  the  usage  which  grew  up  from  the  time  of 
the  Resurrection,  of  observing,  not  the  seventh  day,  or 
the  Jewish  Sabbath,  but  the  first  day  of  the  week,  the 
Christian  "  Lord's-day,"  or  Sunday.  It  was  natural 
that  this  difference  in  a  religious  usage  of  such  a  nature 
should  have  provoked  controversy  and  begotten  hard 
feeling.  The  Jew  has  never  easily  let  go  his  religious 
traditions,  and  the  Gentile  converts  were  even  less 
inclined  to  yield  their  Christian  customs  to  the  dicta- 
tion of  a  despised  race. 

What  now  has  the  Apostle  to  say  upon  this  issue  ? 
Just  precisely  the  large-minded  and  impartial  words 
which  we  might  have  expected  of  him.  As  between 
the  seventh  day  and  the  first  day,  he  declares,  there  is, 
as  a  matter  of  principle,  nothing  to  choose.  If  one  man 
regarded  Saturday,  and  disregarded  Sunday  it  mattered 
not.  And,  equally,  it  mattered  not  if  another  dis- 
esteemed  Saturday  and  esteemed  Sunday.  No  man  was 
to  force  his  conscience.  "  Let  every  man  be  fully  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind."  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  him- 
self had  evidently  surrendered,  already,  his  old  Jewish 
usage,  and  had   elected   to  keep  the  first   day.     And, 


102  Waymarks. 

equally  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Jewish  converts  to 
Christianity,  sooner  or  later,  universally  followed  his 
example.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  by  the 
end  of  the  first  century  the  observance  of  the  seventh 
day  as  a  holy  day  by  the  Christian  Church  had  virtu- 
ally ceased.  But  meantime  it  was  the  unequivocal 
position  of  the  Apostle  that  those  who  had  scruples  as 
to  that  change  must  not  be  forced  to  violate  them,  but 
must  rather  be  left  to  outgrow  them. 

So  much^for  those  circumstances  which  furnish  to 
us  the  clue  to  the  words  of  the  text.  How  much 
authority  is  to  be  found  in  them,  thus  rationally  inter- 
preted, for  the  abolition  of  the  Lord's-day  ?  Not  a 
shadow.  In  the  words  immediately  preceding  the  text 
Saint  Paul  declares,  "  One  man  esteemeth  one  day 
above  another,  another  esteemeth  every  day."  (There 
is  no  "  alike,"  in  the  Greek,  the  word  having  been 
arbitrarily  inserted  by  the  translators.)  In  this  verse 
the  word  translated  "  esteemeth,"  means  rather  "  sepa- 
rates," or  "  distinguishes  ; "  and  the  idea  is,  "  one  man 
hallows  one  day,  another  hallows  all  days."  "  Let 
every  man  be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind."  Plainly 
here  the  only  question  is  between  persons  disposed  to 
hallow  different  days,  or,  in  some  cases,  even  all  days. 
But  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  it  furnishes  any  authority 
for  secularizing  all  days.  If  the  Apostle  had  said,  "  One 
man  disesteemeth  one  day,  another  man  disesteemeth 
all  days,"  then  there  would  have  been  some  warrant 
for  inferring  from  the  following  words,  "  let  every  man 
be  fully  persuaded  in  his  own  mind,"  some  authority 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday.  103 

for  abolishing  Sunday.  But  anybody  who  looks  into 
the  New  Testament  to  find  there  any  faintest  intimation 
that  Saint  Paul  regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  indifference 
whether  one  should  keep  any  holy  day  at  all,  will  look 
in  vain.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  he  gives  the  Jew  a  right 
to  cling  to  his  ancient  usage  mitil  he  should  outgrow 
it  for  the  Christian  usage,  and,  meantime,  he  himself 
commends  that  Christian  usage  by  the  way  in  which 
he  inculcated  and  practised  it  among  the  gentiles. 

But  more  than  this  Saint  Paul  could  not  have  done, 
even  had  he  been  minded  to.  The  consecration  of  one 
dav  in  seven  to  uses  other  and  more  sacred  than  those 
of  the  rest  is  ordained  by  a  law  which  lies  a  long  way 
behind  either  the  religion  of  Christ  or  the  religion  of 
Moses.  That  law  is  imbedded  in  the  very  constitution, 
physical,  mental,  and  moral,  of  human  nature,  and  as 
human  nature  has  awakened  to  its  consciousness  and 
its  significance,  just  in  that  proportion  has  it  ennobled 
and  advanced  itself.  The  first  nations  in  the  family 
of  nations  to-day  are  those  who,  whether  early  and 
quickly,  or  slowly  and  late,  have  learned  to  hallow  one 
day  and  keep  it  sacred  ;  and  the  loftiest  achievements 
in  arms,  in  literature,  in  science,  in  philanthropy,  in 
missionary  enterprise,  and  in  social  advancement,  be- 
long to  that  Anglo-Saxon  people  whose  observance  of 
Sunday  is  to-day  the  wonder  and  the  admiration  of 
every  intelligent  traveller. 

We  who  are  here  this  afternoon  received  that 
day  from  those  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors.  How  they 
in  turn  received  it   from  those  first  missionaries  who 


104  Way  marks. 

found  their  way  to  Britain  by  way  of  France  from 
Asia  Minor,  I  shall  not  tarry  now  to  remind  you.  I 
am  aiming  at  another  point,  and  that  I  pray  you  to 
observe. 

This  is  New  York,  —  so-called  because  its  early  inhab- 
itants came,  some  of  them,  from  Old  York.  Yonder  is 
New  England,  whose  early  settlers  found  their  way  to 
its  rock-bound  coasts  from  Old  England.  To  the  south 
of  us  is  Pennsylvania,  or  the  English  Quaker  Penn's 
Woods  ;  and  Marj^-land,  or  the  land  of  Queen  Mary  ; 
and  Virginia,  or  the  land  of  the  Virgin  Queen  Elizabeth ; 
and  the  Carolinas,  or  the  land  of  King  Charles ;  and 
Georgia,  or  the  land  of  King  George.  Were  these 
names  given  to  the  original  States  of  this  Union  by 
accident  ?  Who  gave  them,  and  what  do  they  mean  ? 
They  were  given  by  the  men  who  first  settled  those 
States,  and  they  were  meant  to  proclaim  where  those 
men  had  come  from  and  what  they  were.  They  were 
not  Frenchmen,  nor  Dutchmen,  nor  Italians,  nor  Swedes, 
nor  Russians.  They  were  Anglo-Saxons.  I  do  not  for- 
get that  you  can  find  plenty  of  Dutch  names  in  New 
York,  and  plenty  of  French  names  in  South  Carolina. 
I  do  not  forget  that,  from  the  beginning,  these  shores 
have  hospitably  welcomed  people  of  every  race  and 
language  and  religion.  But  the  fact  remains  that,  from 
that  beginning,  these  colonies  and  States  have  been 
the  territory  and  the  homes  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  people. 
Its  language  is  the  English  language.  Its  laws  are 
Anglo-Saxon  laws,  tracing  back  their  lineage  if  you 
choose  to  Roman  law,  but  coming  to  you  and  me  to- 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday.  105 

day  not  because  of  their  Roman  roots  but  because  of 
their  English  roots.  And,  finally,  its  religion  is  an 
Anglo-Saxon  religion,  —  Syrian  first,  if  you  prefer  to 
call  it  so,  and  then  it  may  have  been  French,  in  so 
far  as  it  found  its  way  from  that  East  which  was  the 
liome  of  the  Master,  to  English  shores  across  French 
territory,  but  English,  so  far  as  you  and  1  are  concerned, 
in  this,  that,  whether  Puritans  or  Prelatists  to-day,  we 
received  it  from  English  forefathers  who  brought  it 
with  them  to  these  shores. 

Now,  then,  one  conspicuous  feature  of  that  Christian 
faith  and  worship  which  you  and  I  have  received  from 
our  ancestors  is  the  reverent  observance  of  the  Lord's- 
day.  So  deeply  imbedded  is  that  reverence  that  it  has 
become  a  part  of  the  common  law  of  the  land  and  a 
contract  made  on  Sunday  and  a  deed  of  sale  given  on 
that  day  are  equally  invalid. ^  By  a  common  consent, 
which  (so  far  as  the  memory  of  civilized  man  upon 
this  continent  can  testify)  knows  nothing  to  the  con- 
trary, Sunday  is  a  hallowed  day,  marked  off  from  unhal- 
lowed worldly  and  common  usages,  if  not  by  universal 
custom,  at  least  by  common  and  undisputed  tradition. 

But  of  late  we  have  been  hearing  a  new  gospel  upon 
this  subject.  Within  the  last  fifty  years,  and  especially 
within  the  last  twenty,  this  country  has  received  an 
enormous  immigration,  principally  of  Irishmen,  Germans, 
Swedes,  Norwegians,  Italians,  French,  and  Chinese,  not 
to  mention  scores  of  other  nations  who  are  now  repre- 

1  See  the  case  of  Lindmiiller  vs.  The  People,  33  Barbour's  Reports, 
p.  458. 


106  Waymarks. 

sented  among  our  cities  in  lesser  numbers.  Let  me 
speak  of  every  one  of  them  with  heartiest  respect.  It 
is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  indebtedness  of  a  land  like 
ours  to  these  strangers,  of  various  speech  and  divers 
faith.  If  Irishmen  have  built  our  cities,  Germans  have 
taught  us  how  to  live  in  them  with  thrift  and  frugality. 
If  sunny  Italy  has  sent  us  the  torturing  peripatetic 
whose  vagrant  organ  has  been  the  enemy  of  repose  and 
the  terror  of  the  invalid,  it  has  sent  us  also  a  vast  num- 
ber of  hard-working  and  orderly  citizens.  And  who 
have  so  successfully  conquered  our  northern  and  west- 
ern wildernesses  as  our  Swedish  and  Norwegian  immi- 
grants ?  —  even  as  the  despised  Chinaman  has  built  the 
railways  over  which  they  have  travelled  to  reach  those 
wildernesses.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  foreign  element 
which  Americans  have  not  welcomed  with  cordial  greet- 
ing and  equal  protection. 

We  are  approaching  a  point,  however,  where  there 
seems  to  be  growing  among  us  a  demand  for  more  tlian 
this.  We  are  told  that  some  of  our  national  customs 
are  puritanical  and  illiberal,  and  we  are  bidden,  in  some 
quarters  at  least,  to  surrender  them.  It  has  happened 
once,  if  no  more,  in  our  community,  that  a  congregation 
of  Christian  worshippers  conducting  its  religious  services 
on  the  Lord's-day  has  found  itself  all  but  powerless  to 
protect  the  sanctity  and  decency  of  these  services  from 
being  invaded  by  the  noisy  revelry  of  a  beer-garden  and 
concert  saloon,  in  which  tlie  click  of  beer  glasses  and  the 
coarse  shouts  of  the  guests  mingled  with  the  coarser 
melodies  of   the  opera  bouffe.     Nay  more,  it  has  hap- 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday.  107 

pened  more  than  once,  when  some  word  of  remonstrance 
has  been  raised  against  this  steady  encroachment  upon 
our  national  customs  arid  our  municipal  laws,  that  that 
word  of  remonstrance  has  been  met  with  a  louder  and 
angrier  word,  which  has  bidden  us  to  understand  that 
the  people  will  have  their  rights,  and  that  one  of  their 
rights  is,  on  Sunday  at  any  rate,  to  do  pretty  much  as 
they  please. 

This  smouldering  sentiment  among  us  would  undoubt- 
edly have  met  with  a  more  prompt  and  emphatic  rebuke 
if  it  had  not  often  received  tacit,  if  not  open  encourage- 
ment from  an  opposite  social  extreme.  We  have  those 
among  us  who,  having  abundant  leisure  all  the  week  to 
do  nothing,  think  that  they  cannot  better  employ  Sun- 
day than  by  making  it  the  day  for  their  most  ostenta- 
tious pleasure-seeking.  Accustomed  to  borrow  the 
fashions  of  their  raiment  and  the  seasoning  of  their 
viands  as  well  as  such  dubious  literature  as  they  are 
capable  of  mastering  from  a  land  in  which  Sunday  is 
conspicuously  disesteemed  and  dishonored  as  a  day  of 
Christian  worship,  they  have  lately  undertaken  to  bor- 
row also  its  Sunday  customs.  And  thus  that  great 
intermediate  class,  the  enormous  majority  in  numbers, 
in  essential  stability  of  character,  in  moral  worth  among 
us,  finds  itself  between  two  opposite  forces  equally  and 
openly  hostile  to  our  American  Sunday. 

I  cannot  greatly  admire  the  spirit  in  which,  too  often, 
they  have  met  them.  Beginning  at  first  with  austere 
conceptions  of  the  character  and  authority  of  Sunday, 
they  have  ended,  not  uncommonly,  in  surrendering  any 


108  Way  marks. 

claim  for  its  sacredness  whatever.  It  was  one  of  the 
hundred  good  resolutions  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  "  never 
to  utter  anything  that  is  sportive  or  matter  of  laughter  on 
the  Lord's-day ; "  and  because  we  have  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  old  Puritan  strictness  in  such  matters 
was  extravagant,  we  have,  in  many  instances,  abandoned 
it  for  an  habitual  levity.  Nay  more,  when  one  is  met 
and  challenged  by  that  somewhat  imperious  demand  that 
our  foreign-born  brethren  shall  have  liberty  to  take  our 
American  Lord's-day  and  convert  it  into  a  Berlinese  or 
Parisian  Sunday,  it  is  pitiful,  sometimes,  to  see  the 
weak-kneed  acquiescence  with  which  such  propositions 
are  met.  I  A^enture  to  submit  that  it  is  time  that  we 
took  our  bearings  a  little  more  clearly  in  this  matter. 
It  is  surely  a  pertinent  inquiry,  whose  country  is  this, 
and  what  language  does  it  speak,  and  by  what  sacred 
traditions  is  it  hallowed  ?  Who  first  sought  it  out,  and 
settled  it,  —  subduing  its  wildernesses  and  founding  its 
cities,  and  opening  its  sea-ports  ?  From  whence  got  it 
its  law  and  faith,  and  its  Christian  civilization?  Who 
have  hallowed  its  hills  and  its  valleys  by  their  blood, 
shed  once  and  yet  again  in  its  defence  ?  Call  it  fanati- 
cism, call  it  intolerance,  call  it  political  infatuation, 
what  you  will,  I  venture  to  declare  that  it  is  high  time 
that  our  brethren  of  other  lands,  and  otlier  races,  and 
other  religions,  or  no  religion  at  all,  understood  clearly 
and  distinctly  that  while  we  welcome  them  to  assimila- 
tion to  our  national  life,  America  is  for  Americans,  and 
that  while  we  will  welcome  every  foreigner,  Christian  or 
Jew,  Pagan  or  Positivist,  to  our  shores,  they  are  our 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday/.  109 

shores,  not  his,  and  are  to  be  ruled  by  our  traditions,  not 
those  of  other  people.  It  is,  in  fact,  as  utter  an  imperti- 
nence for  the  German  or  the  Frenchman,  for  the  Jew 
or  the  Mohammedan  to  come  here  demanding  that  we 
shall  waive  the  customs  and  repeal  the  laws  that  hallow 
our  Lord's-day,  as  that  we  shall  surrender  our  language 
for  the  dialect  of  the  Black  Forest,  or  our  marriage  rela- 
tions for  the  domestic  usages  of  the  Sultan.  No  one 
comes  here  in  ignorance  of  American  usage  or  tradition 
on  these  points.  It  is,  I  repeat,  a  solemn  impertinence 
when  any  foreigner  demands  that  we  shall  surrender 
those  usages  because  they  do  not  happen  to  have  been 
his.  And  it  does  not  become  less  of  an  impertinence 
because,  in  any  particular  community,  —  in  New  York 
for  instance,  —  the  numerical  majority  may  happen  to 
be  in  favor  of  radical  changes  in,  or  even  the  utter 
abolition  of,  our  Sunday  laws.  A  half  a  dozen  ship- 
loads of  people  landed  at  New  Bedford,  on  the  coast  of 
Massachusetts,  might  convert  that  decent  and  self- 
respecting  and  monogamic  community  in  twentj^-four 
hours  into  a  city  in  which  the  majority  of  the  people 
were  in  favor  of  the  religion  of  Joe  Smith  and  the 
domestic  usages  of  Mormonism.  But  I  have  yet  to  learn 
that  that  would  be  a  valid  reason  for  repealing  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  so  far  as  they  applied  to  the  town 
of  New  Bedford,  in  regard  to  the  matter  of  polygamy. 
There  is  something  besides  the  accidental  presence  of 
mere  numbers  to  be  reckoned  in  estimating  the  moral 
sentiment  and  intelligent  determination  of  the  com- 
munity ;  and   it   is  the  majority,  not   of   the  idle,  and 


110  Waymarks. 

vicious,  and  thriftless,  of  the  ignorant,  of  aliens  and  of 
agitators,  but  the  majority  of  the  upright  and  industri- 
ous, the  frugal  and  temperate,  the  thoughtful  and  the 
self-respecting,  whose  voice  should,  on  this  point,  be 
potential.  For  one,  I  have  no  apprehension  as  to  its 
verdict,  if  only  it  shall  insist  upon  being  heard. 

But  that  is  the  duty  of  the  hour.  It  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  facts  of  our  time  that  those  older  nations 
from  which  some  of  us  propose  to  borrow  our  habit  of 
disregard  for  the  Lord's-day,  are  striving  at  this  very 
moment  with  most  impressive  earnestness  to  restore 
the  earlier  sacredness  of  that  day.  In  Germany,  in 
Switzerland,  and  in  France,  there  are  already  organiza- 
tions of  serious  and  thoughtful  men  who  are  seeking  to 
banish  the  Continental  Sunday.  They  have  seen,  on 
the  one  hand,  as  any  one  may  see  in  France  to-day, 
that  the  removal  of  the  sacred  sanctions,  which  with  us, 
hold  the  first  day  of  the  week  in  a  kind  of  chaste  re- 
serve, have  eventuated  not  merely  in  degrading  it 
to  the  level  of  a  vulgar  holiday,  but  also  of  degrading 
and  enslaving  him  for  whom  its  privileges  were,  most 
of  all,  designed,  —  the  wearied,  over-worked  and  poorly 
paid,  laboring  man.  They  have  seen  that  in  such  a 
capital  as  Paris,  it  has  already  come  to  pass  that  the 
working-man's  Sunday  is  often  as  toilsome  a  day  as  any 
other  ;  and  that  since  the  law  no  longer  guards  the  day 
from  labor,  the  capitalist  and  contractor  no  longer  spare 
nor  regard  the  laborer.  He  is  a  person  out  of  whom 
the  most  is  to  be  got,  and  if  he  can  work  six  days  lie 
may  as  well  work  the  seventh   also,  so  long  as  there  is 


A  Plea  for  the  Americmi  Sunday.  Ill 

nothing  to  forbid  it.  Such  a  condition  of  things  may 
not  directly  threaten  those  of  us  who  are  protected  by 
wealth  from  the  necessities  of  daily  labor,  but,  if  ours 
is  this  more  favored  condition,  all  the  more  do  we  owe 
it  to  our  brother  man  who  is  less  favored,  to  see  to  it 
that  he  shall  have  every  sanction  with  which  the  law 
can  furnish  him  to  guard  his  day  of  rest  from  being 
perverted  and  revolutionized  into  a  day  of  toil.  And  if 
he  himself  does  not  see  that  the  more  that  we  assimi- 
late Sunday  to  other  days  by  the  amusements,  the  occu- 
pations, the  teaching  and  reading  and  thinking  with 
which  we  fill  it,  the  greater  is  the  danger  that  ultimately 
we  shall  lose  it  altogether,  the  more  earnestly  are  we 
bound  to  strive  to  disseminate  those  sounder  ideas  which 
shall  set  this  first  day  of  the  week,  and  its  devout  ob- 
servance before  our  fellow  men  and  women  of  the  labor- 
ing classes  in  its  true  light,  and  so  help  and  teach  them 
how,  not  to  lose,  but  to  keep  it. 

And  if  it  is  asked  how  best  we  can  disseminate  that 
sounder  and  more  conservative  sentiment  in  regard  to 
this  day,  I  answer  first  of  all,  by  our  example.  There 
is  nothing  in  all  the  world  so  potent  or  so  contagious  as 
that.  Any  one  of  us  who  has  been  much  in  other 
lands  must  recognize  its  peculiar  influence  in  this 
particular  matter  of  Sunday.  I  have  heard  of  a  clergy- 
man as  strolling  into  a  bric-a-brac  shop  in  Briissels,  and 
entering  into  negotiations  for  something  that  had 
caught  his  eye  in  the  shop-window,  without  ever  realiz- 
ing, till  he  took  out  his  purse  to  pay  for  it,  that  he  was 
.chaffering  with  a   tradesman  for   a  bit   of  old  carvinar 


112  Waymarks, 

on  Sunday  morning.  The  whole  atmosphere  of  a  con- 
tinental city  is  usually  so  full,  on  the  Lord's-day,  of 
the  sounds  and  symbols  of  traffic,  that  one  has  to  re- 
call himself  to  the  consciousness  of  Sunday,  oftentimes, 
by  a  positive  and  conscious  effort  of  the  will.  And  it 
is  not  always  greatly  otherwise  even  at  home.  There  is 
in  om'  air  a  relaxed  sentunent  in  regard  to  the  observ- 
ance of  this  day,  and  we  are  constantly  challenged 
to  answer  whether  we  regard  the  minute  prohibitions  of 
the  Fourth  Commandment,  and  of  the  old  Jewish  law, 
as  binding  upon  Christians  in  this  year  of  grace,  1878. 
Let  us  not  be  afraid  to  admit  that .  our  reverence  for 
this  day  stands  upon  different,  and  as  I  conceive,  upon 
higher  ground.  The  institution  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath, 
with  its  microscopic  prohibitions,  was  undoubtedly  part 
of  that  educative  system  appropriate  to  a  race  in  a  state 
of  almost  barbaric  bondage,  which  has  long  ago  passed 
away.  And  we  Christians  no  longer  hold  to  that 
Mosaic  system,  not  so  much  because  it  has  been  for- 
mally repealed  as  because  it  has  been  spiritually  out- 
grown. We  are  no  longer  under  its  law,  but  under  the 
Master's  law  of  love.  But,  all  the  same,  love  will 
provide  a  day  in  which  the  soul's  highest  aspirations 
shall  have  a  chance  to  find  expression,  and  the  truest 
and  most  unselfish  love  will  most  jealously  and  sacredly 
guard  that  day  for  others.  And  so,  though  a  certain 
liberty  in  things  indifferent  might,  perhaps,  make  no 
great  difference,  if  you  and  I  were  to  take  it,  we  will 
be  careful  how  and  when  we  take  it,  not  merely  for  our 
own   sakes,  but   equally  and   always   for   our   brother's 


A  Plea  for  the  American  Sunday,  113 

sake.  Instead  of  driving  to  church  on  Sundays  we 
shall  be  willing  to  walk,  and  so  to  let  men-servants  and 
cattle  rest,  as  well  as  ourselves.  Instead  of  giving  din- 
ner-parties on  Sunday,  we  shall  try  to  let  the  cook  be- 
low stairs  realize  that  it  is  Sunday,  as  well  as  the 
master  above  stairs.  And  by  the  retirement  that  we 
cultivate,  and  the  books  and  the  papers  that  are  seen  in 
our  own  hands,  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  our  guests  or 
our  children,  we  shall  strive  to  indicate  that  there  is  a 
difference  between  Sunday  and  other  days,  instead  of 
striving  rather  to  obliterate  that  difference.  No  one 
who  can  recall  the  Sunday  usages  of  the  American 
people  twenty  years  ago,  and  compare  them  with  those 
of  to-day,  will  be  insensible  to  the  change  which  has 
everywhere  taken  place.  Undoubtedly  that  change  is 
largely  traceable  to  the  excitements  of  war-times,  which 
so  blurred  the  week  during  their  feverish  continuance 
that  Sundays  and  week-days  became  equally  secular. 
But,  whatever  the  cause,  that  the  moral  tone  of  the 
community  has  been  elevated  and  improved  as  this 
earlier  reverence  for  Sunday  has  decayed,  there  is  no 
one  among  us,  I  think,  who  will  care  to  affirm.  In 
losing  our  old-fashioned  Sundays,  we  seem  to  have  lost 
something  else  and  more  besides. 

And  hence  it  is  that  there  is  needed  the  influence  of 
our  personal  example  to  honor  and  conserve  the  sanctity 
of  the  Lord's-day.  Nor  only  that.  We  want  an  ear- 
nest and  united  endeavor  for  the  wider  dissemination  of 
a  sound  teaching  and  literature  upon  this  Sunday  ques- 
tion.    If  the    drift  of  the   social  customs  and    average 

8 


114  Waymarks. 

thinking  of  other  lands  is  so  largely  in  a  direction  con- 
trary to  that  which  we  have  been  taught  to  account 
as  wliolesome,  all  the  more  must  we  strive  to  stem  that 
drift  with  a  wiser  and  a  healthier,  and  a  more  intelligent 
sentiment.  There  exists  in  this  city  a  committee  of 
gentlemen,  who  have,  for  some  years,  given  themselves 
most  unselfishly  to  this  work.  I  cannot  too  highly 
commend  the  spirit  and  temper  with  which  they  have 
done  so.  Theirs  has  not  been  a  popular  undertaking. 
Nothing  is  that  seems  to  interfere  with  the  liberty  of 
the  individual  in  things  comparatively  innocent.  And 
so  this  committee  has  sometimes  been  sneered  at,  and 
sometimes  denounced.  All  honor  to  them  for  the  manly 
courage,  the  dignified  reserve,  and  the  unswerving  firm- 
ness with  which  they  have  persevered  in  their  work  ! 
Let  them  not  feel  that  in  doing  it  they  are  standing 
quite  alone.  They  have  already  had  the  generous  co- 
operation and  sympathy  of  some  of  the  most  earnest 
Christian  men  and  women  in  this  community.  Give 
them  a  continuance  of  that  sympathy,  and  let  their 
treasury  be  enriched  by  the  expression  of  your  sub- 
stantial support !  They  are  striving  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  our  American  Sunday.  God  help  this  land  and 
this  people,  if  ever  the  time  shall  come  when  their 
labors  shall  prove  to  have  been  in  vain  ! 

For  when  that  time  shall  come  it  will  be  because  the 
sentiment  of  religion,  and  the  aspiration  of  an  upward- 
reaching  faith  will  have  perished  among  us.  We  may 
declaim  as  we  please  in  behalf  of  a  philosophy  which 
makes  all  days  holy   to    the  universal  worship  of  hu- 


A  Pita  for  the  American  Sunday.  115 

manity  by  making  no  day  holy  to  the  worship  of  a  per- 
sonal God  ;  but  the  decay  of  stated  times  and  seasons 
for  the  offering  of  that  worship  presages  a  day  when 
neither  God  nor  man,  neither  life  nor  property,  neither 
human  weakness  nor  human  needs,  have  any  rights  nor 
any  scantiest  respect.  To  learn  that  fact  we  need  go 
back  no  farther  than  the  history  of  France  in  1788. 
Ought  it  not  to  be  enough  that  God  has  taught  the 
world  so  stern  and  tragic  a  lesson  on  this  subject  and 
taught  us  that  lesson  so  lately  ? 

For,  after  all,  the  question  is  not  so  much  one  of  the 
safety  and  well-being  of  life  and  property  as  of  the 
higher  well-being  of  the  personal  soul.  A  great  states- 
man is  reported  to  have  said  to  one  who  sought  of  him 
an  interview  concerning  secular  matters  on  the  Lord's- 
day,  "  I  MUST  keep  one  day  in  which  to  realize  what  lam, 
a7id  where  I  am  going I^"*  Ay,  "where  I  am  going." 
Does  that  question  ever  occur  to  us  ?  We  are  passing 
with  steady  tread  and  never-pausing  foot-steps  to  the 
threshold  of  that  low-bowed  portal  through  which  we 
must,  the  youngest  of  us,  soon  bend  our  heads  to  pass, 
and  so  be  lost  from  the  sight  of  our  earthly  friends 
forever.  As  we  shall  emerge  beyond  it,  it  is  our  hope 
and  expectation  to  emerge  into  the  companionship  of  a 
Being  who  has  made  us,  and  of  His  Son  who  has  re- 
deemed us.  Have  we  ever  paused  to  ask  ourselves  how 
far  we  have  attuned  our  lives,  our  thoughts,  our  affec- 
tions, to  that  loftier  fellowship  that  is  to  be  ?  Oh,  to 
be  in  that  unseen  home  that  lies  beyond  the  heavenly 
horizons,  —  to   seethe   form   of   Him  who  walks  amid 


116  Waymarks. 

the  golden  candlesticks,  and  yet  to  be  a  stranger  to 
its  King,  and  an  alien  from  its  spirit  and  its  speech,  this, 
it  seems  to  me,  would  be  the  most  dismal  of  incongrui- 
ties, and   the  dreariest   of  fates ! 

And  therefore  thank  God  for  Sunday,  and  for  all 
that,  in  this  our  free  America,  it  stands  for !  May 
He  make  us  grateful  more  and  more  for  this  inheri- 
tance, and  may  He  give  us  courage  and  resolution 
to  guard  it  sacredly  and  to  cherish  it  tenderly,  and 
so  hand  it  on  and  down,  unchanged  and  unimpaired, 
to  our  children  and  our  children's  children  ! 


CHRISTIAN   RECONSTRUCTION. 

The  traveller  who  goes  up  and  down,  whether  in  New  Eng- 
land or  elsewhere  in  the  older  States  of  the  republic,  will 
remark  a  characteristic  which  in  small  as  well  as  large  com- 
munities is  widely  apparent.  The  cities  and  villages  are,  in 
many  of  their  more  conspicuous  features,  being  rebuilded; 
and  this  rebuilding  is  especially  noteworthy,  in  contrast  to 
that  which  one  sees  in  the  old  world,  for  its  departure  from 
earlier  types.  In  parts  of  Cologne  and  Munich,  indeed,  and 
in  some  other  European  cities,  one  may  see  the  appearance 
not  only  of  modern  structures,  but  of  structures  of  modern 
rather  than  antique  design.  But  usually,  whether  in  domes- 
tic, civic,  or  ecclesiastical  architecture,  the  local  tradition  is 
adhered  to,  and  the  new  is  new  only  in  its  material  and  not 
in  its  idea.  Indeed  this  may  be  seen  frequently  in  those 
cases  where  communities  from  the  old  world  have  settled  in 
considerable  numbers  in  our  own  land.  The  church  or  the 
inn  looks  often  like  a  veritable  transplantation  from  beyond 
seas. 

The  American  usage,  however,  is  in  marked  contrast  to 
this.  Partly,  it  is  true,  this  is  to  be  explained  by  the  poverty, 
meagreness,  and  absence  of  all  architectural  character  in  our 
earlier  structures.  But  far  more  is  it  to  be  explained  by 
that  advance  in  popular  ideas  and  ideals  which  has  largely 
broken  with  our  immediate  past  and  has  come  under  the 
influence  of  other  and  most  dissimilar  impressions. 

In  the  discourse  which  follows  this  is  indicated  as  an  il- 
lustration of  that  other  transformation  which  has  come  to 
pass  in  the  intellectual  and  religious  life  of  New  England, 


118  Waymarks, 

and  it  might  have  been  shown,  had' the  occasion  called  for  it, 
in  other  parts  of  the  country.  No  candid  observer  can  be 
insensible  to  the  fact.  The  more  urgent  question  with  many 
earnest  and  devout  minds  is  and  will  be,  for  some  time  to 
come,  as  to  its  tendency.  That  there  are  dangers  in  that 
tendency  no  one  will  care  to  deny.  The  simplicity,  the 
austerity,  the  rigidity,  of  which  the  New  England  meeting- 
house was  a  symbol,  stood,  unquestionably,  for  certain  great 
ideas,  the  conservation  of  which  is  essential  to  the  integrity, 
and  indeed  to  the  very  existence,  of  a  Church  or  a  nation. 
That  with  the  growing  complexity,  luxury,  and  changeful- 
ness  of  our  modern  life,  such  ideas  are  seriously  threatened, 
no  one  who  knows  some  prevalent  notes  in  social,  commer- 
cial, and  political  life  will  care  to  deny.  And  so  some  have 
made  haste  to  say,  ^'Yes,  we  are  going  through  a  process 
of  reconstruction,  but  it  will  cost  us  more  than  we  shall 
gain.  Life  is  richer,  theology  is  more  tolerant,  worship  is 
more  beautiful,  art  is  more  reverenced,  but  God  is  not  in  it 
all,  or,  if  He  is,  some  of  His  most  distinctive  attributes  are 
becoming  sadly  obscured." 

It  is  because  I  believe  that  that  Scriptural  and  Apostolic 
faith  and  order  in  which  was  set  apart  the  Church  at  whose 
consecration  the  sermon  here  following  was  preached,  has  su- 
premely a  message  of  hope  and  of  re-assurance  to  such  fears, 
that  I  have  included  it  in  this  volume.  A  faith  and  order 
which  shall  at  once  discriminate  between  the  permanent  and 
the  variable,  letting  go  the  latter  when  need  shall  be,  and 
steadfastly  holding  fast  to  the  former,  —  which  shall  not 
cling  so  tenaciously  to  its  past  as  to  misread  the  needs  of  the 
present  and  the  opportunities  of  the  future,  —  this  is  the  faith 
and  order,  at  once  conservative  and  reconstructive,  which  can 
best  serve  the  Church,  the  State,  the  individual. 

The  sermon  which  follows  was  preached  at  the  consecra- 
tion, June  19,  1888,  of  the  new  edifice  erected  for  Trinity 
Church,  Lenox,  Mass.,  to  replace  that  erected  a.  d.  1816. 


VIII. 

THE   RECONSTRUCTIVE   POWER  OF 
CHRISTIANITY. 

Then  came  the  zvord  of  the  Lord  by  Haggai  the  iwophet^ 
saying^  Is  it  a  time  for  you,  0  ye,  to  dwell  in  your  ceiled 
houses  and  this  house  lie  waste  ? 

Now  therefore  thus  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts  ;  consider  your 
icays.  ...  Go  up  .  .  .  and  build  the  house;  and  I icill 
take  pleasure  in  it  and  .  .  .  will  be  glorified,  saith  the 
Lord.   .   .   . 

And  the  Lord  stirred  up  the  spirit  of  Zerubbabel,  the  son  of 
Shealtiel,  .  .  .  and  the  spirit  of  Joshua  the  son  of  Jose- 
dech,  the  high  priest,  and  the  spirit  of  all  the  remnant  of 
the  people  ;  and  they  came  and  did  work  in  the  House 
of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  their  God.  —  Haggai,  i.  3-5,  8, 14. 

So  it  was  of  old,  and  so  it  is  to-day.  I  shall  speak  to 
you  this  morning  of  the  reconstructive  power  of  revealed 
religion,  and  its  relation  to  this  occasion. 

And  at  the  outset  it  may  be  well  that  I  should  remind 
you  of  that  double  process  which  from  the  beginning  of 
history  has  been  going  on  in  human  society. 

When  we  trace  that  history  to  its  vanishing-point  we 
find  that  it  disappears  where  there  is  no  longer  any  trace 
of  law  and  order  and  organized  life.  There  was  a  time, 
doubtless,  though  there  are  only  the  most  meagre  records 


120  Way  marks. 

of  it,  when  people  roamed  about  without  rule,  without 
homes,  without  plan  or  purpose.  The  beginnings  of  his- 
tory are  where  that  condition  of  things  began  to  cease. 
There  was  a  patriarch,  a  chieftain,  a  law-giver,  who  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  a  State  ;  who  saw  the  might  and  the 
beauty  of  order,  to  whom  was  revealed  the  power  and  the 
peace  of  government.  And  such  a  man,  in  some  far-off 
age,  began  to  turn  his  vision  into  fact,  —  to  rule,  to 
set  in  array,  to  make  symmetrical,  in  one  word,  to  build 
society.  No  matter  who  he  was, —  Moses,  Alexander, 
Caesar,  Peter  the  Great,  William  the  Silent,  Washington, 
—  this  is  the  large  idea  that  shines  through  all  that  he 
did  and  was.  Civilization,  in  a  word,  is  constructive, 
and  that  is  the  supreme  distinction  between  it  and  bar- 
barism. A  great  State,  like  a  great  family,  has  its 
periods  of  rise,  of  growth,  of  achievement,  and  of  de- 
cline. But,  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  you  may 
trace  these  periods  by  what  they  constructed.  The 
domestic  architecture  of  England  or  Italy  is  a  history  of 
great  households  that  built  themselves,  their  ambitions, 
their  idiosyncrasies,  their  triumphs,  into  the  homes  in 
which  they  lived. 

And  so  of  States  and  of  the  institutions  which  they 
create,  or  perpetuate.  In  these  you  may  read  the  march 
of  ideas,  the  evolution,  noble  or  ignoble,  of  national  ten- 
dencies,—  the  expression,  in  one  word,  of  national  char- 
acter. Doric  simplicity,  —  Corinthian  luxury  ;  we  take 
a  column  from  a  temple  of  the  one  era,  or  the  other,  and 
it  tells  the  whole  story. 

And  this  fact,  which  we  may  trace  anywhere  that  men 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Christianity,       121 

have  lived  and  wrought  and  fought,  we  may  trace,  pre- 
eminently, in  that  story  of  the  Hebrew  people  from 
whose  pages  I  take  the  text.  In  the  beginning  of  its 
national  and  religious  life  there  is  no  temple,  no  taber- 
nacle, no  tent,  —  nothing  but  an  Arab  sheik  with  a 
vision  of  God,  to  whom  there  comes  one  day  the  mes- 
sage "  Fear  not,  Abram,  I  am  thy  shield  and  thy  exceed- 
ing great  reward,"  and  "  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great 
nation,  and  thine  offspring  shall  be  as  the  sand  upon  the 
sea  shore." 

And  then  there  come  the  successive  steps  :  the  vision 
at  Peniel,  as  we  have  read  it  this  morning,  with  the 
gleaming  ladder  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven  and 
angels  going  to  and  fro  upon  it ;  the  tabernacle  in  the 
wilderness  ;  the  visible  Shechinah ;  the  Ark  of  the  Cove- 
nant ;  the  Temple  of  Solomon ;  and,  rising  side  by  side 
with  these,  a  tribe,  a  group  of  tribes,  a  leadership  of 
patriarchs,  a  rulership  of  priests,  a  government  of  judges, 
a  sovereignty  of  kings.  Social  progress,  structural  pro- 
gress ;  these  are  the  two  things  that  move  forward  hand 
in  hand,  and  the  story  of  the  one  is  forever  repeated  to 
us  in  the  characteristics  of  the  other.  Besides  what 
Herodotus  tells  us,  how  little  we  know  of  Egypt !  But 
we  go  there,  and  along  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  in  those 
tombs  and  palaces  which  the  sands  of  ages  have  at  once 
buried  and  preserved  to  us,  we  read  the  least  and  home- 
liest details  of  a  nation's  religion,  of  a  nation's  daily 
life. 

Such  considerations  prepare  us  for  a  line  of  reflection 
which,  1  hope  you  will  agree  with  me,  is  not  inappropri- 


122  Waymarks. 

ate  to  this  place  and  this  occasion.  We  who  are  Ameri- 
cans may  not  disassociate  ourselves  from  our  remoter 
past,  —  that  past  which  runs  back  into  distant  centuries 
and  distant  lands.  But  neither  may  we  forget  that  we 
have  a  distinct  and  distinctively  national  life  and  national 
history.  And  in  the  light  of  that  history,  the  act  for 
which  we  are  gathered  here  to-day  becomes,  I  venture 
to  submit,  profoundly  impressive. 

The  ancestors  of  most  of  those  to  whom  I  speak  this 
morning  came  to  these  shores  for  a  definite  reason  and 
with  a  tolerably  distinct  purpose.  Oat  of  an  age  of 
luxury,  of  wide-spread  corruption,  of  ecclesiastical  in- 
tolerance, they  came  forth  to  found  in  a  new  world,  a 
new  commonwealth  for  God.  They  were,  as  a  rule, 
without  wealth,  without  social  prestige,  without  force  of 
arms  or  numbers.  They  had  certain  profound  convic- 
tions and  an  intense  though  narrow  piety.  The  ideas  of 
toleration,  of  religious  liberty,  of  true  catholicity  of 
temper  which  some  of  us  fondly  impute  to  them,  they 
neither  held  nor  dreamed  of,  and  such  ideas  were  as 
much  in  advance  of  their  time  as  the  developments  of 
modern  science. 

But  they  had  a  profound  conviction  of  God,  and  of  the 
binding  obligations  of  duty.  And  these  began  to  find 
expression  just  so  soon  as  they  began  to  build.  They 
appear  in  their  laws,  harsh  enough  doubtless  in  many 
particulars,  such  as  those  relating  to  the  observance  of 
Sunday,  and  the  convenient  jest  of  our  modern  license, 
but  shot  through  and  through  with  the  golden  thread  of 
a  reverence  for  what  they  understood  to  be  divine  sane- 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Christianity.      1*23 

tions.  They  appear  no  less  in  their  structures,  wherein, 
whatever  was  the  meagreness  and  bareness  of  their 
homes,  —  ihade  so  by  their  struggles  and  their  poverty, 
—  their  sanctuaries  were  always  somewhat  less  mean. 
The  New  England  meeting-house,  standing  usually,  as 
with  you,  upon  some  commanding  hill,  dominated  the 
community  in  more  ways  than  one.  Thither  the  tribes 
were  wont  appropriately,  CA'en  as  the  Psalmist  sings, "  to 
go  up  ; "  and  bare  and  austere  as  they  were,  there  was 
always  something  of  sober  dignity,  a  touch  of  richness 
and  costliness,  not  usually  to  be  found  elsewhere.  Much 
of  the  first  mahogany  that  came  to  our  part  of  the  world 
went  into  the  desks  and  handrails  of  New  England  pul- 
pits, and  the  velvet  hangings  and  fringes  were,  to  many 
a  youthful  imagination,  the  only  interpretation  that  it 
knew  of  the  fringes  and  draperies  of  the  Tabernacle  and 
the  Temple.  Our  fathers  had  not  much  of  worldly  sub- 
stance to  give,  but  they  gave  to  God  of  their  best. 

Well,  the  old  era  has  come  and  gone.  On  what  a 
new  world  the  American  of  to-day  looks  out,  when 
he  contrasts  its  aspect  with  the  past  I  I  have  seen  a 
statement  by  Mr.  Gladstone  that  the  increase  of  the 
world's  wealth  during  the  last  fifty  years  is  greater  than 
the  sum  of  all  the  accumulated  and  transmitted  wealth 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  And  in  no  nation 
on  earth  has  this  increase  been  so  rapid  and  so  gigantic 
as  in  our  own.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  such  a  fact  as 
this  has  revolutionized  our  national  life.  We  have  come, 
in  art,  in  architecture,  in  manners,  as  a  little  while  ago 
in  the  State,  to  the  era  of  reconstruction.     Our  cities, 


124  Way  marks. 

builded  once,  are  being  rebuilded.  On  every  hand  the 
old  is  giving  place  to  the  new.  The  narrow  proportions, 
the  meagre  space,  the  simple  decorations  are  all  disap- 
pearing before  a  movement  of  renewal  which  pulls  down 
that  it  may  build  again,  larger,  statelier,  costlier  than 
our  fathers  ever  dreamed  of.  Culture  enlarges  itself, 
the  tasks  widen  their  horizon,  and  all  that  ministers  to 
these  grows  ampler,  richer,  and  more  expensive. 

I  do  not  know  that  there  is  anything  greatly  to  fault 
in  this.  A  certain  harmony  between  powers  and  envi- 
ronment is  w^hat  we  see  in  nature,  and  there  is  so  much 
of  really  helpful  education  in  the  exercise  of  the  con- 
structive powers  that  we  may  not  deny  them  exercise. 

But  at  this  point  there  arises  the  question  "  What  is 
their  worthiest  exercise?"  Given  wealth,  knowledge, 
enlarged  tastes,  the  genius  of  the  designer,  the  trained 
skill  of  the  builder,  art,  and  opportunity,  how  may  these 
be  best  employed  ?  To  be  sure,  even  in  a  great  ware- 
house there  is  a  chance  for  such  constructive  skill  as 
shall  express  solidity,  adaptability,  a  certain  dignified 
refinement,  as  though  the  building  had  said,  "  Yes,  I  am 
in  trade,  but  my  tastes  are  not  at  all  mercenary,  my 
aims  are  not  merely  utilitarian."  A  steamship  may  be 
so  designed  as  to  look  like  a  hideous  hulk,  and  again,  it 
may  be  so  drawn  and  modelled  a?  to  seem  a  very  race- 
horse of  the  sea.  A  house  may  be  planned  with  every 
convenience,  and  so  constructed  as  to  hold  within  its 
walls  every  needed  facility  of  eating,  idling,  and  sleeping, 
and  yet  be  an  uncouth  and  tasteless  thing  that  disfigures 
the  landscape  and  offends  every  eye  that  sees  it,     We 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Christianity,        125 

have  learned  all  this  very  thoroughly.  Our  domestic 
architecture  in  America  is,  whatever  its  frequent  faults, 
and  they  are  obvious  enough,  that  which  foreign  critics 
most  praise. 

But   there  our   distinction  ceases.     Our  institutional 
architecture  shows  tokens,  here  and  there,  of  marked 
improvement,  and  there  are  halls  of  science  and  learn- 
ing in  many  places  worthy  of  hearty  admiration.     But 
we  have  not,  even  here,  done  as  yet  our  worthiest  work, 
and  when  we  come  to  those  ideas  which  should  have  the 
noblest  housing  of  all,  the  deficiency  is  at  once  the  most 
general  and  the   most   conspicuous.     For  the   noblest 
idea  of  all,  I  take  it,  is  the  Divine   Idea,  —  that  your 
life   and   mine    is   related  to  a  Being   above   us   from 
whom  that  life  is  derived ;  that  this  Being  is  at  once 
Creator   and   Father ;   that   He   has    revealed   Himself 
in   the   person    and  work   of   His    Son    Jesus    Christ  ; 
that  He  quickens  man  by  His  Holy  Spirit ;  and  that  to 
Him  who  unites  in  Himself  these  powers  and  person- 
alities, we  owe  our  love  and  service,  and  our  homage. 
This,  as  I   understand  it,   is   Religion,  — the    religion 
whose   disciples    we     are    and    by    whose  inspirations 
man    is   to   be   redeemed   and   transformed.      This,  if 
I  understand  aright,  is  the  Force  of  all  other  Forces, 
pre-eminent   and   supreme,   with   the   mightiest   lifting 
power  that  has  ever  entered  the  world.     We  turn  the 
pages   of  history,   and   see   them   scarred   by  warfare, 
treachery,   and   sin.     We    see   the   horrible   tread   and 
trend  of  evil,  cursing,  blackening,  and  destroying.     And 
over   against    this   evil   we   see   but   one   force    strong 


126  Waymarks. 

enough  to  face  it,  to  subdue  it,  to  banish  it.  I  speak  of 
the  pages  of  history ;  there  is  a  single  book  which, 
dismissing  all  others,  is  here  enough  for  our  purpose. 
Take  Mr.  Lecky's  History  of  Civilization,  and  read  the 
story  of  Roman  decadence  and  Christian  reconstruction. 
Make  every  allowance  that  you  please  for  the  favoring 
force  of  circumstances,  and  yet  here  was  a  power,  so 
new,  so  resistless,  so  triumphant,  that  not  to  own  its 
transcendent  character  is  to  trifle  with  facts  and  to 
disparage  our  own  intelligence. 

At  any  rate,  we  who  are  here  are  in  no  doubt  what 

*  

that  power  Tj^as,  nor  whence  it  was !  We  are  in  no 
doubt  that  to  it  we  owe  all  that  is  best  in  our  own  lives, 
and  brightest  in  the  world's  future.  And  as  little  are 
we  in  doubt,  I  venture  to  affirm,  whatever  may  be  the 
not  always  reverent  persiflage  of  our  lighter  moments, 
that  this  power  has  not  lost  its  capacity  to  lift  men  out 
of  their  meaner  selves  and  to  transform  and  ennoble  the 
race.  The  earlier  formulas  in  which  especially  our 
American  forefathers  were,  many  of  them,  wont  to 
state  their  beliefs  and  transmit  their  sacred  traditions 
are  undoubtedly  largely  disesteemed  if  not  absolutely 
disowned.  The  theology  that  was  taught  by  men  who 
lived  among  tliese  hills  a  hundred  years  ago  is  in  many 
features  of  it  an  extinct  species,  whose  peculiarities 
most  people  scan  curiously,  but  disown  unreservedly. 
To  many  amiable  and  devout  minds  there  is  in  this  fact, 
doubtless,  much  that  is  disquieting  and  alarming,  and 
as  a  consequence  of  it,  there  is  unquestionably  a  good 
deal  of  rash  and  irreverent  and  unsettling  speech  and 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Christianity,      127 

teaching.  It  is  the  law  of  reactions  that  it  should 
be  so.  You  cannot  reconstruct  without  pulling  down 
something,  and  rashness  is  as  common  in  dealing  with 
ancient  theology  as  it  is  with  ancient  architecture.  It 
requires  almost  more  genius  to  restore  a  cathedral 
wisely  than  to  build  it.  But  that  on  the  whole  this 
process  of  theological  reconstruction  is  going  on  among 
us  wisely,  —  that  religion  is  vindicating  its  possession 
of  that  capacity  for  reconstruction  of  which  I  spoke  at 
the  outset,  —  of  this  I  think  no  candid  observer  of  the 
situation  can  be  in  any  honest  doubt.  The  awakening 
among  us  of  what  may  be  called  the  historic  instinct  in 
matters  of  religious  form  and  worship,  the  conception  of 
the  Church  as  a  Divine  institution  and  not  a  human 
society,  the  impatience  of  those  needless  and  harmful 
divisions  in  Christendom  which  are  the  fruit  of  self-will 
and  exaggerated  individualism,  the  longing  to  recover 
out  of  the  past  whatever  is  true  and  beautiful  and  good, 
and  to  prize  and  venerate  it  for  its  associations  as  well 
as  for  itself;  the  disposition  to  own  frankly  that  ages 
which  we  have  been  wont  to  despise  bore  fruit  for  God 
and  for  humanity,  and  that  we  can  afford  to  own  and 
honor  sainthood  and  service  without  embracing  the 
errors  with  which  they  were  disfigured,  —  all  these  signs 
are  tokens  of  that  reconstructive  process  in  religion 
which  is  not  indeed  without  its  perils,  but  which  God  is 
ordering  and  overruling,  I  verily  believe,  for  His  own 
greater  glory.  When  they  built  the  beautiful  All 
Saints'  Church  in  Worcester  not  long  ago,  my  Right 
Reverend    brother,   your   Bishop,   will    remember   that 


128  Waymarhs. 

they  wrought  into  the  walls  a  stone  which  they  had 
brought  from  Worcester  Cathedral,  and  in  the  cloister 
of  Trinity  Church  in  our  Boston  (is  it  effrontery  for  a 
New  Yorker  to  speak  so  of  that  fair  and  stately  capital 
of  your  commonwealth  in  which  I  think  all  Americans 
have  a  genuine  pride  ?)  there  are,  unless  I  am  mistaken, 
stones  which  were  once  inwrought  with  the  fabric  of 
the  old  parish  church  in  the  English  Boston.  Such 
incidents  are  symbolic  and  prophetic.  How  some  of 
the  Puritan  fathers  hated  the  Prayer-book !  How  mul- 
titudes of  their  children  and  their  children's  children 
love  it !  How  abhorrent  to  elder  New  England  was 
what  we  mean  by  the  Christian  year,  —  Christmas-tide 
and  Passion-tide,  and  Easter-tide,  and  the  rest !  And 
to-day  these  holy  feasts  and  fasts  are  cherished  in  sanc- 
tuaries and  homes  all  over  this  commonwealth  where 
the  beauty  and  blessedness  of  the  Church  idea  has 
come,  and  has  come  to  stay.  This  is  what  I  mean  by 
the  process  of  religious  reconstruction, — a  larger  vision, 
a  more  reverent  retrospect,  a  more  dispassionate  and 
therefore  a  juster  judgment,  and  therefore  again,  a  more 
intelligent  and  a  more  hopeful  missionary  activity. 

And  out  of  this  it  has  come  to  pass  that  while  we 
know  less  than  our  fathers  knew  about  the  damnation 
of  non-elect  infants,  we  know  more  of  the  calling  of  the 
Church  of  God  as  a  Divine  society  in  the  world,  sent 
here  to  grapple  with  its  miseries,  to  uplift  its  fallen  ones 
and  to  conquer  its  sin.  This  is  the  new  note  of  hope- 
fulness which,  unless  I  mistake  its  strain,  rings  through 
all  our  Christian  work   and  life  to-day.     We  are  not 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Chrutianity.       129 

dealing  with  out-worn  superstitions  ;  we  are  not  cling- 
ing to  exploded  fables.  We  are  feeling  anew  the  thrill 
of  that  fresh  iraXi'yyeva-La  that  quickening  stir  of  the 
Spirit  which  as  it  comes  once,  and  again  and  again  in 
the  history  of  the  race,  proclaims,  "  Behold,  I  make  all 
old  things  new." 

And  tliis  brings  us  to  that  visible  result  with  which 
we  are  concerned  to-day,  in  its  relations  to  that  national 
deficiency  to  Avliich  I  have  already  referred.  I  have 
endeavored  to  indicate  how  the  social  progress  of  a 
great  people  has  written  itself  in  the  buildings  for  do- 
mestic shelter,  for  traffic,  for  science,  and  for  art,  which 
it  has  reared,  and  is  rearing  on  every  hand.  It  is  a 
cloud  upon  the  escutcheon  of  our  American  fair  fame, 
that  hardly  anywhere,  or  at  all  adequately,  have  they  as 
yet  been  matched  by  buildings  for  the  highest  uses  of 
all.  There  has  been,  there  is,  a  process  and  progress  of 
religious  reconstruction  among  us,  but  structurally  (in 
more  ways  than  one !)  it  has  as  yet  by  no  means  found 
adequate  or  worthy  expressions.  Here  and  there,  there 
are  one  or  two  buildings  (and  it  is  your  honorable  dis- 
tinction that  two  of  them  are  in  New  England)  that  are 
distinctly  adequate  for  a  great  use,  and  worthy  at  any 
rate,  in  some  degree,  of  a  great  people.  But  as  a  rule, 
in  our  great  cities  and  out  of  them,  our  ecclesiastical 
architecture  lags  a  long  way  behind  our  civic,  our  social, 
our  domestic. 

The  peril  of  such  a  fact  is  greater  than  we  are  wont 
to  recognize.  You  cannot  treat  a  great  personality 
or    a    great    idea    meanly    without,    sooner    or    later, 

9 


130  Waymarks. 

coming  to  that  condition  of  mind  where  your  thinking 
is  as  mean  as  your  behavior.  And  tliat  means,  ulti- 
mately, the  death  of  reverence,  the  death  of  faith,  the 
death  of  religion.  If  our  homes,  our  places  of  amuse- 
ment, our  exchanges,  and  our  insurance  offices  are 
made,  as  they  are  coming  to  be  so  widely  in  this  coun- 
try, stately  and  magnificent,  and  all  the  while  the  house 
of  God  is  left  to  be  mean  and  cheap  and  shabby, 
—  be  sure  that  our  children  will  understand  perfectly 
well  what  we  think  about  the  whole  business  !  "  God 
is  a  Spirit  and  they  who  worship  Him  must  worship  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth."  Yes,  most  surely  ;  but,  for  the 
present,  you  and  I  are  in  the  flesh  ;  and  unless  we  are 
prepared  to  maintain  that  when  Christ  himself  insti- 
tuted that  highest  act  of  Christian  worship  in  which  we 
are  soon  to  unite,  saying,  "  Take  and  eai;^^  ''Do  this 
in  remembrance  of  me,"  He  did  not  mean  that  our  love 
and  faith  and  homage  should  have  visible,  symbolic, 
material  expression,  —  and  if  visible  expression,  then 
fit  and  appropriate  expression,  —  then  the  best  and 
stateliest  that  we  have,  we  must  give  to  Him! 

And  so  I  bless  God  that  I  am  permitted  to  come  here 
to-day,  and  see  in  this  impressive  structure  such  sub- 
stantial tokens,  not  of  the  death  of  religion  but  of  its 
life.  Since  I  first  came  to  Lenox,  a  stripling  in  the 
ministry,  from  across  the  border  yonder  of  what  was 
then  still  a  part  of  the  diocese  of  New  York  (now 
Albany),  the  whole  aspect  of  things  here  has  changed. 
Your  honored  Rector  had  just  come  here,  and  only  a 
handful    of  people   sought   among   these   hills   for  the 


The  Reconstructive  Power  of  Christianity,       131 

health  and  refreshment  which  they  have  since  brought 
to  so  many  tired  and  overtaxed  dwellers  in  om*  great 
cities.  But  since  then,  there  has  come  to  be  a  new 
Lenox,  and,  none  too  soon,  I  think  you  will  own,  has 
there  come  to  be  a  new  and  worthier  Trinity  Church. 
I  venture  to  think,  dear  brethren,  that  you  who  have 
built  it  will  not  sleep  less  peacefully  under  your  own 
roofs  because  now  you  have  seen  to  it  that  the  house 
of  the  Lord  doth  not  lie  waste  !  I  congratulate  you,  my 
dear  and  right  reverend  father,  as  Bishop  of  the  Diocese, 
and  you  my  reverend  brother,the  Rector  of  this  parish, 
upon  a  result  so  substantial  and  gratifying.  The  faith- 
ful ministry  which  has  gone  in  and  out  among  this 
people  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  finds  its 
fitting  recognition  in  what  those,  mainly,  who  are  stran- 
gers and  not  home-born,  have  done  for  this  parish. 
Many  of  them  my  own  people,  —  children  of  the  diocese 
of  New  York,  and  for  a  time  more  than  one  of  them 
bound  by  a  still  closer  tie,  and  others  not  of  our  own  com- 
munion, nor  all  of  them  dwellers  in  the  great  city  which 
some  of  us  call  our  home,  —  all  these  have  left  on  these 
walls  and  in  these  windows,  "  richly  dight,"  the  costly 
evidences  of  their  generous  and  large-hearted  interest  in 
this  church.  It  is  a  happy  ordering  that  it  should  be 
so.  "  I  believe,"  we  have  said  together  this  morning, 
"  in  the  Communion  of  Saints."  I  look  for  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  and  the  life  of  the  world  to  come  ; 
and  tliis  chancel,  yonder  tower,  and  all  that  cost  and 
toil  have  wrought  and  expended  here  proclaim  that 
faith !     God   be    praised    for   the   integrity    of   purpose 


132  Waymarks. 

which  has  planned  and  labored  here,  and  which  has 
builded  honestly  and  solidly,  as  the  old  cathedrals  — 
not  alone  where  the  eye  of  man  can  see,  but  where  alone 
the  eye  of  God  sees.  God  be  praised  for  the  love  and 
gratitude  that  have  wrought  themselves  into  all  that, 
in  whatsoever  way,  has  gone  to  make  this  holy  and 
beautiful  house  more  fair  and  meet.  Said  one  who  not 
long  ago  reared  in  this  beautiful  valley  of  the  Housa- 
tonic  another  costly  sanctuary,  speaking  to  a  friend  of 
his  the  other  day,  "  Nothing  that  I  have  ever  done  gave 
me  so  much  pleasure  as  that !  "  I  can  well  believe  it ! 
It  is  a  great  honor  and  privilege  to  build,  not  for  man, 
but  for  God. 

That  privilege  has  been  given  to  you.  May  God  make 
it  the  portal  of  many  others.  "  This,"  cried  Jacob  at 
Peniel,  "  is  none  other  than  the  gate  of  heaven."  May 
many  a  tired  heart  and  burdened  soul  that  kneels 
within  these  walls  find  it  to  be  so  here  !  And  out 
from  these  walls  may  there  go  forth  a  saintlier  manhood 
and  womanhood,  strengthened  and  upbuilded  here,  to 
bless  the  wastes  that  lie  about  us,  to  preach  Christ 
by  loving  sacrifice  and  service  for  their  fellow-men, 
and  so  to  bring  more  near  the  day  of  His  eternal 
triumph. 


THE   NEEDS   OF   A   LIVING   CHURCH. 

Divided  by  their  differing  political  allegiance,  the  people 
living  to  the  northward  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
Great  Lakes,  and  those  whose  home  is  south  of  it,  have  never- 
theless much  in  common.  There  is  not  the  same  all-prevail- 
ing language,  for,  in  Canada  the  French  colonists  have 
retained  their  ancestral  speech,  and  with  it  man}^  of  their 
ancestral  customs.  But  with  this  exception,  the  identity  of 
speech,  religion,  and  usages  is  extensive,  and  in  many  ways 
identically  influential.  Especially  is  this  true  of  those  in 
Canada  whose  traditions  connect  them  with  the  Church  of 
England,  and  whose  intercourse,  therefore,  with  their  eccle- 
siastical brethren  across  the  American  border  has  been  inti- 
mate and  affectionate.  The  problems  with  which  Churchmen 
in  the  United  States  have  been  called  to  grapple  have  been 
largely  those  which  have  confronted  their  Canadian  brethren, 
and  the  fact  that  more  than  one  American  presbj'ter  or 
bishop  has  been  called  to  a  Canadian  episcopate  is  sig- 
nificant indication  of  a  confidence  in  American  men  and 
methods,  as  adapted  for  the  accomplishment  of  Church  work 
even  upon  a  soil  which  owns  the  sovereignty  of  an  English 
queen.  In  the  organization  of  her  synods  and  dioceses 
American  rather  than  Anglican  models  have  largely  been 
followed  by  the  Canadian  Church,  and  though,  originally, 
Canadian  bishops  were  appointed  by  the  crown,  they  are 
now,  as  in  the  United  States,  though  not  in  precisel}^  the 
same  way,  chosen  by  a  synod  in  which  clergy  and  laity, 
though  voting  by  orders,  sit  together. 

Nor    is    this    indeed   surprising.      The    conditions    of   the 
Church's  life  on  either  side  are  largely  the  same.      On  our 


134  Way  marks. 

own,  it  is  true,  the  original  prejudice  against  the  Church 
was  stronger  than  it  ever  could  have  been  in  Canada;  and  no 
one  will  quite  accurately  appreciate  the  hindrances  which 
Churchmen  in  the  United  States  have  overcome  who  fails  to 
reckon  in  the  dull  dislike,  in  some  cases,  and  the  more 
active  antagonism  in  others,  with  which  during  the  earlier 
days  of  the  republic  all  endeavors  for  Church  extension  were 
met.  A  profound  distrust  of  the  Church's  aim  and  a  not 
unnatural  suspicion  as  to  the  motives  of  a  communion  pre- 
viously so  closely  identified  with  that  civil  powder  which 
strove  to  smother  the  life  of  the  infant  republic  and  to 
reduce  it  by  force  of  arms  to  its  previous  vassalage, —  an  in- 
tense Puritan  antipathy  to  its  doctrines  and  worship,  and  a 
wide-spread  disbelief,  not  alas,  wholly  without  foundation  in 
those  earlier  days,  as  to  the  genuineness  and  reality  of  its 
spiritual  life, — all  these  things  conspired  to  make  a  task 
which  was  difficult  enough  in  Canada  all  the  more  difficult 
in  the  United  States. 

But  substantially,  as  has  already  been  intimated,  the  task 
was  the  same.  In  a  time  and  among  a  people  who,  in  either 
country,  were  much  exhorted,  but  not  always  or  often  wisely 
taught,  —  under  conditions  in  which  temporary  religious  ex- 
citement was  made  to  do  duty  for  calm  and  faithful  instruc- 
tion, in  places  where  there  was  indeed  a  ministry  of  the 
Word,  but  wide-spread  neglect  of  the  sacraments,  where 
there  was  need  not  alone  of  a  zealous,  but  of  a  learned  min- 
istry, and  where  not  more,  perhaps,  but  not  less,  certainly, 
than  anywhere  else,  there  was  the  urgent  necessity  of  an 
active,  intelligent,  and  co-operative  laity,  —  the  requirements 
of  a  living  Church  whether  in  Canada  or  in  the  United 
States,  have  been  largely  the  same.  The  sermon  which  fol- 
lows was  an  endeavor  briefly  to  emphasize  some  of  them,  and 
w^as  delivered  at  the  Cathedral  in  London  before  the  Synod  of 
the  diocese  of  Huron,  June  19,  1877. 


IX. 

THE  CHURCH'S   NEEDS. 

And  the  Apostles  and  Elders  came  together   to   consider   of 
this  matter.  —  Acts  xvi.  6. 

Whatever  may  be  our  various  theories  of  Holy  Orders, 
we  are  all  agreed,  I  presume,  that  the  Apostles  who  are 
mentioned  in  these  words  were  exceptional  men.  What- 
ever measure  of  inspiration  and  guidance  the  Church 
and  her  priests  and  chief  pastors  have  enjoyed  in  later 
days,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  it  has  been  in  every 
way  inferior  to  theirs.  The  men  who  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Christian  Church  were  men  who  had  been 
girded  for  their  work  by  rare  and  exceptional  endow- 
ments. Whether  we  look  at  their  personal  characters, 
or  their  official  careers,  we  feel  instinctively  that  we  are 
in  the  presence  of  extraordinary  and  transcendently 
gifted  men.  Theirs  were  mighty  powers  for  a  mighty 
work. 

And  yet  it  is  instructive  to  find  that  even,  these  men 
did  not  dispense  with  the  help  which  comes  from  mutual 
counsel  and  conference.  Called  as  they  were  by  excep- 
tional experiences  to  an  exceptional  office,  —  guided,  as 
they  had  a  right  to  believe  they  would  be,  by  the  especial 
manifestations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  —  they  yet  turned  from 


136  Way  marks. 

the  strain  of  separate  and  isolated  responsibilities  to  the 
help  and  comfort  to  be  found  in  fraternal  intercourse 
and  mutual  counsel.  Their  work  was  vast  and  urgent 
and  vital,  but  they  unhesitatingly  put  it  aside,  and  bid 
accustomed  duties  wait  while  they  paused  to  confer 
with  one  another.  They  recognized  the  wisdom  of 
mutual  deliberation  and  of  combined  action  ;  and  in 
this,  one  of  the  earliest  of  the  infant  Church's  councils, 
they  have  set  an  example  for  all  churches  and  for  all 
times.  We  do  well,  therefore,  that  we  are  here  to-day 
to  follow  it,  and  that  from  the  grave  and  urgent  work  of 
the  Church,  in  so  many  and  such  various  fields,  this 
thoughtful  body  of  clergy  and  laity  —  the  representatives 
of  the  Church  in  this  young  but  powerful  diocese  —  has 
come  together  to  deliberate  and  confer  anew.  Through 
the  kindly  courtesy  of  your  Bishop  it  is  the  province  of 
a  "  stranger  from  across  the  border  "  to  stand  in  this 
place  and  to  give  you  this  greeting.  If  he  does  so  with 
something  of  diffidence,  and  something  more  of  sell- 
distrust,  he  does  so,  nevertheless,  with  this  inspiring 
consciousness  that,  after  all,  his  work  and  yours  are 
one  ;  that  his  most  sacred  traditions  and  most  venerable 
sanctions  are  drawn,  as  are  yours,  from  the  same  re- 
vered mother,  —  that  mother  whom  John  Winthrop, 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  writing  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  called,  "  Our  dear  mother  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, to  whom  we  owe  a  long  course  of  loving  watchful- 
ness and  care."  It  is  true  that  the  Church  in  Canada 
and  the  Church  in  the  United  States  exist  to-day  amid 
very  different  civil  conditions  and  under  widely  dissim- 


The   Church's  Needs,  137 

ilar  political  systems.  But  theirs,  thank  God,  is  a 
dearer  bond  than  any  begotten  of  the  State,  and  a  closer 
sympathy  than  any  that  kindles  at  the  sight  of  a  flag. 
It  is  the  sympathy  begotten  of  a  common  faith,  a  com- 
mon language  and  liturgy,  and  a  common  ministry  and 
sacraments.  As  an  American  Churchman  stands  in 
some  ancient  English  minster,  awed  by  its  majestic 
proportions  and  its  chastened  and  venerable  beauty,  he 
finds  himself  reminded  of  the  legend  of  that  young 
artist  of  Padua,  who,  standing  before  a  masterpiece  of 
RaphaeFs,  cried  out  in  irrepressible  pride,  "  And  I  too 
am  a  painter."  For  then  it  is  the  impulse  of  such  a 
one,  though  he  may  stand  upon  English  soil  for  the  first 
time  —  yet  remembering  who  are  his  ancestors,  and 
from  whence  have  come  his  literature  and  his  religion 
—  to  cry  out  with  equal  warmth  and  pride,  "  1  too  am 
an  Englishman."  Even  so  when  we,  who  live  to  the 
south  and  east  of  the  lakes  and  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  find 
our  way  north  and  west,  as  we  gather  in  some  such 
holy  and  beautiful  edifice  as  this  with  brethren  of  the 
same  Scriptural  faith  and  apostolic  order,  we  too  are 
tempted  to  exclaim,  "  Ours  also  is  an  Anglican  mother 
and  an  English  prayer-book ;  ours  the  blessed  heritage 
through  those  pure  and  reformed  standards  of  the  one 
Lord,  one  Faith,  and  one  Baptism."  And  though,  if  you 
who  are  Canadian  Churchmen  should  choose,  with  the 
men  of  Israel  of  old,  to  protest,  "  We  have  ten  parts  in 
the  king,  and  we  have  also  more  right  in  David  than 
ye,"  we  could  not  venture  to  gainsay  you  ;  yet  still  I 
think  you  will  not  refuse  to  own  the  closeness  of  the  tie 


138  Waymarhs. 

that  binds  the  two  Churches  together,  nor  upbraid  me 
for  here  recalling  it. 

I  confess  that  I  do  so  with  a  motive.  This  oneness  of 
sonship  and  lineage,  of  faith  and  order,  is  but  a  simile 
of  that  other  identity  of  our  circumstances  and  work. 
Your  Church  in  Canada  and  ours  in  the  United  States 
are,  each  of  them,  conditioned  by  various  accidental 
differences  of  circumstances  and  surroundings,  which 
give  them  certain  features  of  obvious  unlikeness.  But 
when  you  have  made  allowance  for  these,  there  remain 
other  and  substantial  resemblances  in  those  circum- 
stances which  are  far  more  important  and  influential. 
Yours,  for  instance,  like  ours,  is  a  new  country  and  a 
comparatively  virgin  soil.  The  Christian  civilization 
which  you  are  contributing  to  rear  in  this  diocese  is, 
like  ours,  embarrassed  by  no  traditional  influences  of 
the  people  and  the  soil.  On  the  other  hand,  yours,  like 
ours,  is  a  population  gathered  by  immigration  from 
many  lands  and  widely  different  races.  The  German, 
the  Irishman,  and  the  Negro  jostle  one  another  in  your 
streets  as  they  do  in  ours ;  and  with  you,  as  with  us, 
there  is  the  same  eager  race  for  wealth ;  the  same  too 
common  impatience  with  modest  means  and  uneventful 
experiences.  The  same  bracing  breezes  (dry,  searching, 
and  exciting)  that  have  made,  as  scientists  tell  us,  of 
the  phlegmatic  Old  Englander,  the  restless,  nervous, 
interrogative  New  Englander,  blow  across  your  hills  and 
valleys  that  blow  across  ours,  —  indeed,  in  their  eastward 
progress  from  the  great  lakes  and  the  Rocky  Mountains 
they  reach  you  first.     In  a  word,  the  conditions  under 


The   Church's  Needs.  139 

which  Churchmen  in  Canada  and  in  the  United  States 
are  called  upon  to  do  their  Master's  work,  and  build  up 
the  Church's  walls,  are  much  the  same.  And,  therefore, 
if  I  speak  on  this  occasion  of  some  of  the  Church's  needs, 
as  we  have  learned  them  in  New  York,  I  think  you  will 
own  that  they  are  no  less  her  needs  as  you  have  learned 
them  in  this  newer  London. 

I.  And  first  among  them  (as  one  who  speaks  to 
brethren,  many  of  whom  have  been  clothed  with  the 
same  priestly  office)  I  would  venture  to  name  the  need 
of  an  educated  and  thoughtful  ministry.  It  is  the  glory 
of  our  mother,  the  Church  of  England,  that  while  she 
does  not  despise  the  simplest  and  homeliest  phraseology, 
she  yet  bids  her  ministers  arm  themselves  for  their  high 
tasks  with  those  weapons  of  an  ample  learning  and  a 
genuine  scholarship,  in  which  she  has  always  been  so 
rich.  And  it  is  to-day  her  pre-eminent  distinction  that 
the  products  of  the  literary  labors  of  her  sons  do  more 
if  not  to  shape,  then  to  stimulate  the  religious  thinking 
of  our  time,  than  all  other  influences  put  together.  An 
eminent  divine  of  one  of  the  most  influential  religious 
bodies  in  the  United  States  said  to  me  not  long  ago, 
"  When  I  am  asked  '  to  what  living  literature  I  am  most 
indebted,'  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  'the  literature  of  the 
Church  of  England;'  there  is  nothing  like  it  in  Ger- 
many or  anywhere  else."  And  there  is  nothing  like  it. 
Whether  we  take  the  Bampton  Lectures  of  Liddon  or 
the  Sermons  of  Mozley,  and  other  volumes  which  I 
might  name,  holding  the  same  rank,  what  nobler  evi- 
dence could  the  Church  of  England  give  us  that  she  is. 


140  Waymarhs. 

as  of  old,  the  friend  of  learning  and  of  learned  men, — 
tlie  mother  of  teachers,  and  the  source  and  fountain  of 
profound  attainments  and  a  devout  scholarship  ?  But 
from  what  has  all  this  come  ?  It  has  come  from  those 
wise  provisions  in  her  system  which  afford  to  her  clergy 
both  the  leisure  and  the  opportunities  for  study  and  for 
reflection ;  and  it  is  one  of  her  chief  dangers  in  this 
hurried  and  utilitarian  age  that,  from  a  false  spirit  of 
economy,  or  from  a  mistaken  estimate  of  the  real  value 
of  such  a  ministry,  she  will  so  abridge  their  opportuni- 
ties and  so  increase  the  demands  upon  them,  as  to  make 
such  distinction  in  learning  and  thoughtfulness  no 
longer  possible  to  her  clergy.  Says  Dr.  Farrar,  Canon 
of  Westminster,  and  lately  head-master  of  Marlboro,  in 
a  recent  King's  College  lecture  on  Jeremy  Taylor :  — 

"To  the  acquisition  of  such  a  learning  as  was  Jeremy 
Taylor's,  this  age  —  hard,  exacting,  jealous,  without  concen- 
tration, without  self-recollection,  without  leisure;  utilitarian, 
mistaking  a  superficial  activity  and  a  worrying  multiplicity 
of  details  for  true,  deep  progress;  quite  content  with  vapid 
shibboleths,  archaic  ritualism,  or  emotional  emptiness;  jeal- 
ous of  a  labor  which,  because  it  is  retired,  is  mistaken  for 
idleness;  and  robbing  every  one  it  can  of  all  means  for  the 
exhaustive  pursuit  of  learning  —  is  wholly  unfavorable. 
Two  hundred  years  have  passed  since  the  publication  of  the 
'Liberty  of  Prophesying;'  and  we  are  still  quarrelling 
about  copes  and  chasubles,  and  making  it  a  matter  of  im- 
portance whether  the  sacramental  bread  should  be  cut  round 
or  square.  When  men  are  absorbed  in  such  controversies, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  grinding  littleness  of  endless  and 
elaborate  agencies,  often  wholly  disproportionate  in  number 
and  in  the  toil  they  involve  to  any  possible  good  which  they 


The   Church's  Needs.  141 

can  achieve,  there  is  little  possibility  of  a  learned  clergy, 
—  there  is  indeed  a  fatal  certainty  that  such  will  not  be 
produced." 

Yet,  in  spite  of  such  an  indictment,  there  are  still 
in  the  Church  of  England  some  quiet  nooks,  some  calm 
retreats,  where  one  may  read  and  digest  and  think. 
But  how  is  it  among  ourselves,  whether  in  towns  or  out 
of  them  ?  How  manifold  and  how  engrossing  are  the 
cares  which  are  bound  upon  the  clergy,  over  and  above 
their  distinctly  ministerial  duties  ?  How  often  is  the 
whole  financial  system  of  a  parish  made  to  rest  upon 
the  clergy  V  Who  beg  or  borrow  the  money  that  builds 
our  churches  ?  Who  superintend  their  construction  and 
erection,  and  care  for  the  "  fabric  "  after  it  has  been 
reared  ?  Who  train  our  choirs  and  organize  and  largely 
vitalize  our  schemes  of  parish  w^ork  ?  Who  drudge, 
often  with  hand  as  well  as  brain,  in  the  discharge  of  a 
thousand  petty  details,  to  which  the  ministry  was  not 
called,  and  on  which,  verily,  it  has  no  warrant  for  wast- 
ing itself  ?  God  forbid  that  I  should  seem  to  discourage 
any  pastor  from  cordial  co-operation  in  every  laudable 
undertaking,  but  I  appeal  to  the  experience  of  the  clergy 
whether  there  has  not  often  come  to  them  the  sense  that 
they  were  frittering  away  their  lives  upon  countless 
secular  minutiae,  which  are  almost  as  remote  from  the 
tasks  to  which  by  their  ordination  vows  they  were  set, 
as  would  be  dancing  or  fox-hunting.  There  is  many  a 
clergyman  in  our  day  who  finds  it  impossible  to  spend 
five  hours  in  the  week  in  his  study.  He  is  set  to  be  a 
teacher  and  guide  to  others,  and  yet  in  an  age  which, 


142  Waymarhs. 

more  tlian  any  other  that  has  gone  before  it,  challenges 
the  clergy  to  the  production  of  their  best  weapons  and 
their  utmost  strength,  such  a  one  finds  himself  going 
into  the  pulpit  on  a  Sunday  morning  with  a  string  of 
commonplaces  at  once  vapid  and  impotent.  I  know  it 
will  be  said  that  the  Church  and  the  pulpit  in  our  day 
want  some  other  things  more  than  they  want  learning 
and  thought;  and  I  freely  grant  it.  The  Church  and 
the  pulpit  want  most  of  all  in  her  ministry  sanctified 
character,  —  souls  on  fire  with  the  love  of  Christ,  and 
longing  to  reach  and  rescue  those  for  whom  Cln-ist  died. 
But  while  the  Church  most  truly  wants  awakened  and 
deepened  feeling,  she  wants  something  more  besides. 
To  give  feeling  its  due  influence  it  must  rest  upon  pro- 
found conviction,  and  in  order  that  conviction  may  be 
profound  it  must  rest  in  turn  upon  reasonable  and  intel- 
ligent foundations.  There  is  a  certain  chastened  and 
affirmative  earnestness  in  the  pulpit  which  is  perhaps 
more  impressive  than  all  other  things  combined ;  for  it 
gives  you  the  impression  that  he  who  speaks  is  saturated 
with  a  sense  of  the  certainty  and  authority  of  that  which 
he  preaches.  But  one  can  never  be  so  penetrated  with 
the  profound  sense  of  a  truth  until  he  has  searched  it  to 
the  roots  and  viewed  it  in  every  light.  Earnestness  of 
feeling  is,  verily,  not  without  its  value ;  but  when  it  has 
awakened  a  corresponding  earnestness  of  feeling  it  must 
be  prepared  to  answer  the  questions  which  that  awak- 
ened earnestness  will  inevitably  provoke.  We  may  wish 
that  we  were  back  in  those  simpler  days  when  learning 
was  the  property  of  a  class,  and  when  the  people  took 


The   Church's  Needs,  143 

the  teaching  that  was  given  them  with  simple  and  un- 
questioning faith.  But  wishing  will  never  bring  those 
days  back  again ;  and  meanwhile  our  business  is  rather 
to  readjust  ourselves  to  the  new  conditions  amid  which 
the  Church  finds  herself.  If  it  is  said  that  she  must 
meet  the  too  common  tendency  to  a  relaxed  faith  merely 
by  a  louder  reassertion  of  her  ancient  symbols,  1  answer 
that  this  is  to  repeat  the  error  of  Rome  in  the  decrees  of 
the  Vatican  Council,  without  the  splendid  discipline  and 
consistent  traditions  of  tlie  Church  of  Rome  to  warrant 
it.  Ours  is  a  Church  which  stands  as  a  witness  to  the 
freedom  of  the  right  of  enquiry,  and  we  shall  never 
successfully  stifle  that  enquiry  by  despising  or  ignoring 
it.  On  the  contrary,  the  Church  must  meet  living  ques- 
tions with  an  intelligent  and  generous  candor,  and  must 
answer  the  assaults  of  unbelief  with  a  might  and  learn- 
ing at  least  equal  to  theirs  by  whom  such  assaults  are 
made.  It  may  be  that  we  suppose  the  critical  and 
scientific  scepticism  of  our  time  to  be  unknown  to  the 
great  mass  of  those  to  whom  in  this  land  the  Church  is 
called  to  minister ;  but  if  we  do,  it  is  because  we  do  not 
take  the  trouble  to  read  the  books  and  look  into  the 
magazines,  which  are  bought  and  read  nowadays  by 
everybody.  Do  we  forget  that  one  man  of  genius  in  our 
day  has  written  a  novel  to  prove  the  moral  identity  of 
our  own  race  with  that  of  the  races  below  it  ?  Do  we 
forget  that  one  of  the  cleverest  serial  stories  of  our  day 
is  aimed  obviously  against  a  theology  which,  though  I 
do  not  hold  it,  has  had  more  than  one  eminent  and 
learned  disciple   in  our  Mother  Church,  yours  as  well 


144  Waymarks. 

as  ours?  Do  we  realize  that  girls  and  boys  read  and 
ponder  such  teachings  just  at  an  age  when  their  minds 
are  most  susceptible  and  most  alert  ?  And  meantime, 
what  are  too  many  of  us  doing,  but  heating  the  old 
broth  over  again,  or  firing  blank  cartridges  at  the  ghosts 
of  errors  which  are  alike  dead  and  forgotten  !  Surely  it 
must  be  owned  that  something  else  is  called  for  in  our 
day,  and  that  somehow  the  Church  must  meet  so  obvious 
and  pressing  a  want.  How  shall  it  be  done  ?  How  shall 
we  secure  a  learned  and  thoughtful  clergy  ?  In  Canada 
and  in  the  United  States  alike,  the  Church  has  no 
venerable  endowments,  no  ancient  seats  of  learning,  no 
income-yielding  scholarships  or  amply-paid  Cathedral 
stalls  for  her  clergy,  —  nothing,  usually,  but  the  parish 
glebe  and  the  modest  parsonage,  and  an  endless  round 
of  hard  work,  poorly  and  often  irregularly  paid.  It  is 
true,  it  will  be  said,  that  upon  the  clergy  are  imposed 
innumerable  burdens  which  do  not  really  belong  to 
them.  It  is  true  that  they  are  distracted  by  engage- 
ments and  fretted  by  details  which  make  it  simply  im- 
possible for  them  to  obey  the  injunction  of  their  Bishop 
at  their  ordination,  to  "  draw  all  their  cares  and  studies 
'  one  way.'  "  But  how,  it  will  be  asked,  do  you  propose 
to  better  this  state  of  things,  not  later  and  elsewhere, 
but  here  and  now  ?  I  answer  that  we  are  to  do  so,  if  at 
all,  by  borrowing  the  wisdom  of  those  who  are  about  us. 
This  wisdom,  as  it  has  illustrated  itself  in  the  history  of 
almost  every  communion  in  this  land,  but  especially  of 
that  one  which,  of  all  others  on  our  side  of  the  line,  is 
the  most  numerous  and  well  organized,  consists  in  de- 


The    ChurcKs  Needs.  145 

veloping  and  utilizing  the  effective  co-operation  of  the 
laity.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  second  of  those  needs 
of  the  Church  in  our  day  of  which  I  would  speak  this 
morning. 

II.  It  has  been  said  somewhere  that  we,  in  our 
communion,  profess  to  believe  in  three  orders  of  the 
ministry,  and  falsify  it  by  being  content  with  two  ;  and 
unfortunately  the  charge  is  true.  We  have  bishops  and 
priests  in  our  day  ;  but  we  have  no  deacons,  —  or  if  we 
do  have  them,  they  are  not  in  any  sense  the  representa- 
tives of  a  distinct  office,  performing  a  distinct  function, 
and  ordained  for  a  particular  work,  but  simply  presby- 
ters in  a  chrysalis  state,  with  an  impatience  to  be  ad- 
vanced to  that  good  degree  of  the  priesthood  which  is  not 
always  quite  consistent  with  their  having  earned  it.  Said 
a  learned  and  venerable  pastor  in  my  hearing  not  long 
ago  :  "  We  have  no  longer  any  deacons  in  the  American 
Church.  They  have  so  large  a  sense  of  their  own  dig- 
nity, and  so  scanty  a  respect  for  authority,  that  I  have 
reached  the  conclusion  that  they  must  all  be  archdea- 
cons." And  the  worst  of  such  a  sarcasm  is  that  with  us 
it  is  so  often  and  so  largely  true.  The  pressure  of  new 
fields  ;  the  frequent  disposition  of  parishes  to  prefer 
young  men,  whose  energy  is  not  always,  however,  a 
sufficient  compensation  for  the  blunders  of  their  inex- 
perience ;  the  spirit  of  our  age,  impatient  of  subordina- 
tion, and  too  eager  to  rule  to  be  willing  to  learn  how  by 
consenting  to  serve,  —  all  these  have  conspired  to  make 
the  diaconate,  at  least  in  our  brancli  of  the  Church,  only 
a  hurried  novitiate,  hurriedly  entered  and  quickly  ter- 

10 


146  Waymarks. 

minated.  As  we  turn  back  the  pages  of  ecclesiastical 
history,  we  read  that  at  the  time  of  the  Council  of 
Chalcedon  there  were  some  forty  deacons  in  Edessa 
alone,  and  that  Constantinople  had  over  one  hundred. 
We  read  of  them  as  a  permanent  and  distinct  office, 
sometimes  combining  tlie  exercise  of  their  ministry  with 
some  secular  calling  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and 
because  of  their  closer  contact  with  the  people,  acting  as 
guides  to  the  presbyters  in  the  ministration  of  relief  to 
the  sick  and  destitute,  and  in  the  exercise  of  discipline 
toward  the  profane  and  irreligious.  And  as  we  read  of 
such  things  in  other  days  it  is  impossible  not  to  wish 
that  we  might  reproduce  them  in  our  own.  How  invalu- 
able, especially  in  fields  in  which  the  ministrations  of 
the  presbyters  are  more  or  less  itinerant,  to  have  a 
resident  deacon,  who  could  maintain  the  services,  visit 
the  sick,  look  up  the  wandering,  and,  like  the  first  seven, 
have  charge  of  those  collections  made  for  the  charitable 
ministrations  to  widows  and  others.  Indeed  the  diffi- 
culty is  not  to  see  how  such  an  officer  in  the  Church 
might  be  usefully  employed,  nor  how  a  perpetual  diaco- 
nate  might  increase  the  efficiency  of  her  ministry,  but 
rather  to  avoid  such  exaggerated  demands  upon  the 
office  as  shall  lead  to  its  practical  extinction.  Of  course, 
if  we  will  persist  in  laying  upon  the  diaconate  all  the 
burdens  of  the  priesthood,  there  can  be  no  reason  why 
it  should  not  take  the  rank  and  responsibilities  of  the 
priesthood.  The  problem  is  how  to  develop  a  class  of 
devout  and  earnest  men  who  shall  be  clothed  with  re- 
stricted powers  and  authority,  and  set  to  do  a  restricted 


The   ChurcNs  Needs.  147 

woi'k ;  and  how,  when  necessary,  to  unj^e  such  an  office 
with  a  secular  calling.  If  it  is  said  that  such  a  thing 
cannot  be  done,  it  is  enough  to  answer  that  in  the 
Methodist  communion  it  already  has  been  done.  One 
of  the  founders  of  that  communion  in  this  country  was 
Elisha  Hedding,  for  many  years  its  senior  superinten- 
dent or  bishop.  It  was  my  fortune,  a  few  years  ago,  to 
stumble  in  a  strange  house  upon  his  biography  ;  and  if 
one  would  know  what  Methodism  in  this  country  owes 
to  what  are  called  "  local  preachers,"  he  will  do  well  to 
read  that  volume.  It  shows  what  vast  results  may  be 
accomplished  by  persons  clothed  with  restricted  powers, 
if  only  they  are  wisely  chosen  and  prudently  employed  ; 
and  it  points  to  an  agency  which,  in  our  pioneer  work  in 
this  continent,  is  almost  indispensable. 

But  if  we  cannot  have  it,  —  and  experience  would 
seem  to  imply  that  we  cannot,  —  then  we  must  have 
that  thing  which  is  nearest  to  it :  I  mean  a  more  cor- 
dial and  a  more  general  spirit  of  lay  co-operation.  At 
present  it  would  seem  that  the  laity  has  but  one  function 
to  perform,  and  that  is  the  function  of  contributing  of 
its  means.  Our  Sunday-schools,  our  parochial  societies 
elicit,  it  is  true,  a  certain  measure  of  lay  co-operation, 
but  usually  only  from  the  very  young.  For  some  un- 
known reason,  it  seems  to  be  accepted  that  just  when  a 
layman  has  reached  that  ripeness  in  years  and  experi- 
ence which  fits  him  to  instruct  and  counsel  others,  he 
ordinarily  ceases  to  do  so.  "  Pure  religion  and  unde- 
filed,"  declares  the  Apostle,  "  is  this,  to  visit  the  father- 
less and  widows  in  their  afflictioyi^^  as  well  as  to  keep 


148  Waymarks, 

one's  self  "  unspotted  from  the  world."  Is  this  only  a 
duty  of  the  clergy  ?  Is  all  other  activity,  save  activity 
in  one's  week-day  business,  excluded  from  the  New  Tes- 
tament conception  of  Christian  living  ?  Has  not  every 
man  received  some  gift  ?  And  are  not  men  bidden  to 
"  minister  the  same  one  to  another  ?  "  If  there  is  one 
thing  more  striking  than  another  in  looking  at  the  con- 
dition of  the  Church  to-day,  it  is  the  disproportion  be- 
tween the  gifts  and  opportunities  of  the  laity  and  their 
exercise.  In  other  days,  when  the  priestly  class  was  the 
only  learned  one,  it  was  fit  and  natural  that  to  them 
should  be  confined  the  missionary  work  of  the  Church  ; 
but  in  our  time,  when  learning  and  books  are  the  equal 
inheritance  of  the  laity  as  well,  there  is  a  definite  re- 
sponsibility that  goes  along  with  them.  Who  can  speak 
to  one  immersed  in  business  with  such  directness  and 
efficacy  as  some  companion  who  from  practical  experi- 
ence has  touched  the  core  of  the  same  temptations  ? 
Not  long  ago,  you  will  remember,  there  was  a  proposi- 
tion looking  to  the  admission,  under  certain  restrictions, 
of  laymen  in  the  Church  of  England  to  its  pulpits.  I 
confess,  for  one,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  dangers  of 
such  a  plan,  if  dangers  there  are,  would  be  far  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  its  advantages.  But  if  tliis 
should  be  otherwise,  there  is  no  layman  among  us  who 
may  not  wisely  remember  that  it  does  not  need  a  pulpit 
in  which  to  serve  Christ  and  His  Church.  The  Church 
calls  for  many  varieties  of  service  from  her  loyal  laity, 
some  of  which  are  directly  in  the  line  of  their  secular 
training.      To   relieve    the    clergy    of    anxiety   for   the 


The   Church's  Needs.  149 

financial  administration  of  their  parishes ;  to  give  per- 
sonal help  to  the  due  order  and  decent  maintenance 
of  the  Church's  services ;  to  visit  the  destitute  and 
gather  in  the  stragglers  and  instruct  the  ignorant, — 
all  these  are  tasks  which  are  within  the  reach  of  the 
most  modest  and  retiring ;  and  suffer  me  to  say  that  it 
will  not  be  until  we  have  elicited  such  a  spirit  of  co- 
operation that  the  vast  arrears  of  the  Church's  work  can 
at  all  be  overtaken.  That  conception  of  the  Church  which 
regards  the  clergy  as  called  to  do  her  work,  and  the  laity 
as  called  to  sit  and  watch  them  do  it,  is  not  more  false 
than  it  is  impotent.  Above  all  this  passive  theory  of 
the  Christian  life,  which  makes  the  individual  disciple  a 
sponge  to  absorb  sermons  and  services  and  pastoral 
visits,  an  ecclesiastical  leech  crying,  "  Give,  give  !  "  and 
yielding  nothing  back, —  this  is  a  theory  which  means, 
to  the  soul  that  acquiesces  in  it,  only  spiritual  dyspepsia 
or  paralysis.  It  is  an  open  question  whether  there  is 
not  too  much  preaching  and  ministering,  in  view  of  the 
meagre  outcome  of  answering  endeavor  and  activity. 
To  be  continually  listening  to  arguments  and  exhorta- 
tions which  lead  to  no  fruitage  of  Christian  activity,  — 
this  is  not  merely  negatively  but  positively  evil.  Out 
of  it  there  comes,  sooner  or  later,  a  dismal  sense  of 
unreality,  which  hardens  the  hearer  and  paralyzes  or 
disheartens  the  preacher  ;  and  therefore  the  co-operation 
of  the  laity  in  every  form  of  the  Church's  life  becomes 
essential  alike  to  their  own  spiritual  life  and  the  lasting 
efficiency  of  the  clergy.  Even  apostolic  hearts  would 
have   fainted   and  faltered  if,  in  the  first  ages  of  the 


150  Waymarks, 

Church's  work,  it  had  not  been  for  the  Aquilas    and 
Priscillas,  whose  loving  labors  so  cheered  them. 

III.  ^  I  know  what  will  be  said  by  a  great  many  hon- 
est and  earnest  men  and  women  in  all  our  congregations 
when  we  come  to  them  with  this  plea  for  an  increased 
activity  on  the  part  of  the  laity  in  the  Church's  work. 
It  will  be  said  that  such  activity  implies  a  religious 
enthusiasm  which  is  not  theirs,  and  which  they  can- 
not but  feel  that  it  would  be  hollow  and  unreal  to 
affect.  Undoubtedly  of  many  persons  this  is  true,  and 
if  it  is,  then  does  it  not  bring  us  to  that  which  is 
after  all  the  Church's  most  urgent  want,  —  the  deepen- 
ing of  her  spiritual  life  ?  Ours  is  an  age  of  great 
mental  activity,  and  especially  of  organized  activity. 
The  Church  never  had  so  many  agencies,  —  so  much 
machinery  for  the  doing  of  her  work,  until  it  has 
come  to  be  a  question  whether  running  the  machinery 
has  not  exhausted  that  vitality  of  which  it  was  meant  to 
be  the  expression.  I  have  heard  a  parish  clergyman 
much  commended  for  holding  seven  services,  including 
three  celebrations  of  the  Holy  Communion,  in  a  single 
day.  I  wish  I  could  see  their  virtue.  It  is  impossi- 
ble, where  there  are  so  many  mechanical  duties  to  be 
performed,  that  the  spirit  in  which  they  are  performed 
should  not  be  mechanical  also ;  and  it  has  certainly 
sometimes  happened  that  our  often-church-going  has 
not  deepened  seriousness  or  earnestness  of  character. 
And  so  behind  all  our  other  needs  as  Churchmen  and 
Christian  disciples  there  stands  —  I  am  sure  there  is  not 
one  of  us  but  is  conscious  of  it  —  the  need  of  deepening 


The   Church's  Needs.  151 

the  spiritual  life ;  to  come  closer  into  the  presence  of 
that  Lord  whom  we  profess  to  serve,  until,  like  her  who 
grasped  the  hem  of  His  garment  with  her  timid  but 
trustful  touch,  virtue  from  Him  shall  quicken  and 
awaken  us.  You  remember  that  legend  of  Leonardo 
da  Vinci,  which  is  told  in  connection  with  his  painting 
of  the  Last  Supper.  As  I  recall  it  now,  it  runs  that 
when  the  wall  of  the  convent  in  Milan  on  which  he  had 
painted  it  was  first  exposed  to  view,  the  monks  gathered 
round  the  picture,  eager  to  criticise  its  details  and  to  ad- 
mire and  applaud  its  most  insignificant  accessories. 
There  were  loud  voices  and  fierce  disputes,  until  it  was 
with  one  consent  agreed  that,  if  there  was  one  thing 
better  than  another  about  the  picture,  it  was  the  draw- 
ing and  coloring  of  the  table-cloth.  The  impatient 
painter  listened,  with  flushed  cheek  and  flashing  eye, 
until  the  last  of  the  order  had  spoken,  and  then  seizing 
his  brush,  with  one  dash  of  color  blotted  every  admired 
detail  of  the  table-cloth  out.  He  had  brought  them  to 
look  upon  the  face  and  figure  of  Christ ;  and  they  could 
be  so  absorbed  upon  so  paltry  a  thing  as  the  painting  of 
a  bit  of  cloth  !  Even  so,  I  think,  in  these  days  of  rest- 
lessness without  devotion,  of  bustle  without  faith,  we  are 
absorbed  in  a  thousand  small  details,  well  enough  in 
themselves,  it  may  be,  but  oh,  how  far  removed  from 
the  central  fact  of  that  relisrion  of  which  we  claim  to  be 
disciples.  And  all  the  while  the  Master  is  looking 
calmly  down  upon  us,  waiting  until  we  shall  consent  to 
withdraw  our  eyes  from  these  and  lift  them  to  Himself. 
For  then  how  surely  shall  it  come  to  pass  that,  drawing 


152  Way  marks, 

our  inspiration  straight  from  Him,  our  work,  our  duty, 
our  shortcomings,  will  all  alike  stand  forth  in  a  new  and 
clearer  light.  If  we  are  the  pastors  of  His  flock,  we 
shall,  as  we  lift  our  eyes  to  Him,  find  ourselves  moved 
to  feed  them  more  diligently  and  lead  them  more  pru- 
dently than  we  have  ever  done  before  ;  and,  whether 
clergy  or  laity,  looking  to  Him  we  shall  catch  the  spirit 
of  Him  who  said,  "  I  must  work  the  works  of  Him  who 
sent  me  while  it  is  called  to-day  ;  the  night  cometh  when 
no  man  can  work."  Show  us,  therefore,  0  Thou  Mighty 
One,  first  of  all  Thyself,  and  so  arouse  us  to  the  work 
which  Thou  hast  given  us  to  do." 


THE   CATHEDRAL    IDEA. 

The  growth  of  the  Cathedral  idea  in  America  is  among  the 
most  interesting  illustrations  of  the  development  of  what  may 
be  called  the  historic  sentiment  in  connection  with  religion 
which  have  thus  far  appeared. 

Until  the  latter  half  of  the  century  had  been  entered 
upon,  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  Cathedral  idea  existed  in 
America  otherwise  than  as  a  local  impossibility.  If  there 
were  devout  Churchmen  who  saw  its  meaning  and  intel- 
ligently apprehended  its  uses,  and  if  there  were  others  who, 
moved  by  the  stately  dignity  of  some  ancient  minster,  longed 
for  its  ennobling  influences,  neither  of  these  ventured  to 
believe  very  confidently  that  the  Cathedral  apart  from  alien 
and  un-American  beliefs  and  associations  was  possible  in 
America. 

But  the  growth  of  a  more  just  conception  of  the  office  of 
the  Church  in  the  world,  of  its  relations  to  wealth,  to  the 
complex  web  of  human  society,  and  also  of  the  Episcopate 
to  the  people,  produced  in  time  a  very  different  conviction, 
and  prepared  the  way  for  an  appeal  in  the  year  1887  to  the 
citizens  of  New  York  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy :  — 

TO   THE   CITIZENS   OF   NEW  YORK. 

Men  and  Brethren,  —  It  was  the  just  pride  of  a  great  Hebrew 
scholar,  apostle,  and  missionary,  that  he  was  "  a  citizen  of  no  mean 
city  ;  "  and  it  may  justly  be  the  pride  of  those  whose  lot  is  cast  in  the 
metropolitan  city  of  America  that  their  home  has  a  history  and 
a  promise  not  unworthy  of  their  affectionate  interest  and  devotion. 


154  Wat/marks, 

A  commercial  city  in  its  origin  and  conspicuous  characteristics,  it 
has  yet  come  to  be  a  centre  of  letters,  of  science,  and  of  art. 
Adorned  by  the  palaces  of  trade,  it  is  not  without  ornament  as  the 
home  of  a  large-hearted  and  open-handed  philanthropy,  and  as  the 
guardian  of  noble  libraries  and  rare  treasures  of  painting  and 
sculpture.  More  and  more  are  the  faces  of  men  and  women,  all  over 
this  and  other  lands,  turned  to  it  as  a  city  of  pre-eminent  interest 
and  influence,  the  dwelling  place  of  culture,  wealth,  and  of  a  nation's 
best  thought.  Never  before  in  its  history  was  there  so  cordial  an 
interest  in  its  prosperity  and  greatness ;  and  recent  benefactions  to 
literature  and  art  have  shown,  what  earlier  and  scarcely  less  princely 
benefactions  to  science  and  humanity  have  proclaimed,  that  its 
citizens  are  determined  to  make  it  more  and  more  worthy  of  that 
foremost  place  and  that  large  influence  which  it  is  destined  to  hold 
and  exert. 

It  is  in  view  of  these  facts  that  its  influence  not  only  in  the 
direction  of  culture  and  art  but  on  the  side  of  great  moral  ideas 
becomes  of  pre-eminent  consequence.  It  is  faith  in  these,  rather  than 
wealth  or  culture,  which  has  made  nations  permanently  great  ;  and 
it  is  where  all  secular  ambitions  have  been  dominated  by  great 
spiritual  ideas,  inculcating  devotion  to  duty  and  reverence  for  eternal 
righteousness,  that  civilization  has  achieved  its  worthiest  victories, 
and  that  great  cities  have  best  taught  and  ennobled  humanity. 

But  great  moral  and  spiritual  ideas  need  to  find  expression  and 
embodiment  in  visible  institutions  and  structures,  and  it  is  these 
which  have  been  in  all  ages  the  nurseries  of  faith  and  of  reverence 
for  the  unseen.  Amid  things  transient  these  have  taught  men  to 
live  for  things  that  are  permanent;  and  triumphing  over  decay  them- 
selves, they  have  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  humanity  a  serene 
patience  under  adversity,  and  an  immortal  hope  in  the  final  triumph 
of  God  and  good. 

Said  a  teacher  of  rare  insight  in  another  hemisphere,  not  long  ago  : 
"  What  are  the  remains  which  you  can  study  in  the  land  of  the 
Caesars  and  the  Ptolemies?  The  buildings  devoted  to  the  conven- 
ience of  the  body  are  for  the  most  part  gone,  wliile  those  that 
represent  ideas  of  the  mind  are  standing  yet.  The  provisions  for 
shelter,  the  places  of  traflSe,  the  treasuries  of  wealth,  have  crumbled 
into  the  dust  with  the  generations  that  built  and  filled  them.  But 
the  temple,   answering  to  the    sense  of  the  Infinite  and  Holy,  the 


The    Cathedral  Idea,  155 

roek-hewn  sepulchre  where  love  and  mystery  blended  into  a  twili2:ht 
of  sunrise, — these  survive  the  shock  of  centuries,  and  testify  that 
religion  and  love  and  honor  for  the  s^ood  are  inextino-uishable." 

For  the  erection  of  such  a  building  worthy  of  a  great  city,  of  its 
accumulated  wealth,  and  of  its  large  responsibilities,  the  time  would 
seem  to  have  arrived.  Xo  American  citizen  who  has  seen  in  London 
the  throngs,  composed  of  every  class  and  representing  every  interest, 
that  gather  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  and  Westminster  Abbev,  all  alike 
equally  welcomed  to  services  whose  majestic  dignity  and  simplicity 
impress  the  coldest  spectator,  can  doubt  the  influence  for  good  of 
these  grand  and  stately  fabrics.  Offering  to  all  men,  of  whatever 
condition  or  fellowship,  the  ministrations  of  reliirion  in  a  lano-uao-e 
understood  by  the  common  people,  bidding  to  their  pulpits  the  ablest 
and  most  honored  teachers,  free  for  meditation,  devotion,  or  rest  at 
all  hours,  without  fee  or  restriction,  they  have  been  a  witness  to  the 
brotherhood  of  humanity  in  the  bond  of  the  divine  Xazarene,  and  of 
the  need  of  the  human  heart  for  some  worthy  place  and  voice  for  the 
expression  of  its  deepest  wants. 

Such  a  need  waits  for  a  more  adequate  means  of  expression 
among  ourselves. 

We  want  —  there  are  many  who  are  strongly  persuaded  —  in  this 
great  and  busy  centre  of  a  nation's  life,  a  sanctuary  worthy  of  a  great 
people's  deepest  faith.  That  trust  in  God  which  kept  alive  in 
our  fathers  courage,  heroism,  and  rectitude,  needs  to-day  some 
nobler  visible  expression,  —  an  expression  commensurate,  in  one 
word,  with  that  material  prosperity  which  we  have  reached  as  a 
people  owning  its  dependence  upon  God  and  upon  His  blessing  on 
our  undertakings. 

Such  a  building  would  meet,  moreover,  practical  and  urgent 
demands. 

(a)  It  would  be  the  people's  church,  in  which  no  reserved  rights 
could  be  bought,  hired,  or  held,  on  any  pretext  whatever. 

(h)  It  would  be  the  rightful  centre  of  practical  philanthropies, 
having  foundations  or  endowments  for  the  mission  work  of  a  jjreat 
city,  and  especially  for  the  education  of  skilled  teachers  and  workers, 
in  intelligent  as  well  as  emotional  sympathy  with  our  grave  social 
problems. 

(c)  It  would  have  a  pulpit  in  which  the  best  preachers  within  its 
command,  from  all  parts  of  the  land  and  of  various  schools  of  thought, 


156  Waymarks. 

would  have  a  place  and  opportunity,  thus  bringing  the  people  of  a 
great  metropolis  into  touch  with  the  strongest  and  most  helpful  minds 
of  the  age,  and  affording  presentations  of  truth  wider,  deeper,  and 
larger  than  those  of  any  individual  teacher. 

{d)  It  would  be  the  fitting  shrine  of  memorials  of  our  honored 
dead,  the  heroes,  leaders',  and  helpers  whose  names  have  adorned 
the  annals  of  our  country,  and  whose  monuments  would  vividly 
recall  their  virtues  and  services. 

(e)  And  finally,  it  would  tell  to  all  men  everywhere  that  "  the  life 
is  more  than  meat,  and  the  body  than  raiment;  "  that  man  is,  after 
all,  a  child  needing  guidance,  comfort,  and  pardon;  and  that  he  best 
live's  here  who  lives  in  the  inspiration  of  an  unseen  Leader  and  an 
immortal  Hope. 

In  commending  this  undertaking  to  my  fellow-citizens,  I  need  only 
add  that  it  has  originated  in  no  personal  wish  or  desire  of  my  own, 
and  that  it  has  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  many  not  of  the  communion 
of  which  I  am  a  minister.  These  with  others  have  Ions:  believed, 
and  stand  ready,  some  of  them,  to  show  their  faith  by  their  works, 
that  in  a  material  age  there  is  a  special  need  in  this  great  city  of 
some  commanding  witness  to  faith  in  the  unseen,  and  to  the  great 
fundamental  truths  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  Such  a  building 
would  of  necessity,  under  our  present  conditions,  require  to  be  ad- 
ministered by  the  Church  under  whose  control  it  would  be  reared, 
but  its  welcome  would  be  for  all  men  of  whatsoever  fellowship,  and 
its  influence  would  be  felt  in  the  interests  of  our  common  Chris- 
tianity throughout  the  whole  land.  It  would  be  the  symbol  of  no 
foreign  sovereignty,  whether  in  the  domain  of  faith  or  morals,  but 
the  exponent  of  those  great  religious  ideas  in  which  the  foundations 
of  the  republic  were  laid,  and  of  which  our  open  Bible,  our  family 
life,  our  language  and  our  best  literature,  are  the  expression. 

As  such,  I  venture  to  ask  for  this  enterprise  the  co-operation  of 
those  to  whom  these  words  are  addressed.  A  native  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  for  nearly  twenty  years  a  citizen  of  its  chief  city,  I 
own  to  an  affection  for  it  at  once  deep  and  ardent.  An  ecclesiastic 
by  profession,  I  have  nevertheless,  I  hope,  shown  myself  not  in- 
different to  interests  other  than  those  which  are  merely  ecclesiastical 
in  their  character  and  aims ;  and  it  is  certainly  not  the  mere  aggran- 
dizement of  the  Church  whose  servant  I  am,  for  which  I  am  here 
solicitous.     There    is  a  larger  fellowship  than  any  that  is  only 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  157 

ecclesiastical,  and  one  which,  as  I  believe,  such  an  undertaking  as  I 
have  here  sketched  would  pre-eminently  serve. 

As  such,  I  earnestly  commend  it  to  all  those  to  whom  these  words 
may  come. 

Henry  C.  Potter. 

The  cordial  response  to  this  appeal  in  quarters  the  most  un- 
expected prepared  the  way  for  initiating  the  successive 
steps  for  securing  a  site  with  incomparable  advantages  for  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  John  the  Divine  at  the  corner  of  110th 
St.  and  Morningside  Park  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  of 
beginning  the  work  of  securing  designs  and  preparing  for 
its  erection.  Meantime  the  sermons  which  here  follow  were 
preached,  the  one  at  the  consecration  of  the  Cathedral  of  the 
Incarnation,  Garden  City,  in  the  diocese  of  Long  Island, 
June  2,  1885,  and  the  other  at  the  opening  service  in  the 
Cathedral  of  All  Saints,  Albany,  New  York,  on  Novem- 
ber 20,   1888. 


X. 


SEEMON  PREACHED  AT  THE  CONSECRATION 
OF  THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  THE  INCARNATION, 
GARDEN   CITY,    L.    I.,    JUNE    2,    1885. 

The  palace  is  not  for  man,  hut  for  the  Lord  God. 
1  Chron.  XXIX.  7. 

It  was  a  happy  ordering  that,  in  the  series  of  services 
of  which  this  is  only  one,  this  service  of  consecration 
should  be  preceded  by  another.  Ah^eady  the  tribes  of 
this  Israel  of  Long  Island  have  come  up  to  this  holy  and 
beautiful  house  and  have  compassed  these  strong  and 
stately  walls  "  with  solemn  pomp."  Already  those 
mutual  felicitations  which  belong  to  the  completion  of  so 
noble  and  memorable  work  have  here  been  freely 
exchanged.  Already,  too,  those  suggestive  historic 
reminiscences  which  must  needs  connect  themselves 
with  such  a  structure  reared  upon  such  a  site  have  been 
rehearsed  here  in  words  whose  affluent  eloquence  I  may 
not  venture  to  emulate.  A  master  hand  has  sketched 
for  those  who  have  been  assembled  here  the  memories 
of  the  past,  and  the  vision  of  a  nobler  future.  A 
humbler  duty  remains  to  him  who,  summoned  to  take 
the  place  of  another  and  more  fit,  and  coming  late  and 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  159 

hurriedly  to  his  task,  may  at  least  console  himself  with 
the  reflection  that  those  words  of  thanksgiving  to  God 
and  gratitude  for  the  munificence  of  His  servant  appro- 
priate to  this  work  have  already  been  most  fitly  spoken, 
and  that  those  lessons  of  paternal  wisdom  which,  alone, 
the  father  of  his  flock  may  inculcate,  have  already  been 
worthily  urged. 

But,  on  such  an  occasion  there  is  still  something 
that  remains  to  be  said,  and  I  am  free  to  own  that  I 
am  not  sorry  to  be  bidden  here  to  say  it.  For  it  is  im- 
possible to  come  here  for  this  service  without  being 
sensible  that  to  many  minds  in  our  generation,  and 
especially  in  this  our  own  land,  both  the  service  itself 
and  the  structure  which  is  the  occasion  for  it,  are 
equally  an  extravagance  and  an  anachronism.  We  look 
back  from  our  higher  civilization  to  other  and  earlier 
ages  which  reared  such  buildings  as  this,  and  remember 
how  much  these  ages  lacked.  The  age  of  the  great 
Cathedrals,  we  are  wont  to  say,  was,  if  you  choose,  an 
age  of  great  devotion,  but  it  was  also  an  age  of  great 
and  widespread  ignorance.  Tiie  times  that  built 
Durham  and  Milan,  Canterbury  and  Seville,  Lincoln 
and  Rouen,  were  times  certainly  of  splendid  gifts 
and  of  matchless  labors,  but  they  were  also  times  of 
superstition  even  among  the  most  learned,  and  of 
semi-barbarism  among  the  common  |7eople.  We  may 
cordially  admire  the  enthusiasm  of  those  earlier  days, 
and  the  stately  structures  through  which  it  found  ex- 
pression. But  it  is  quite  consistent  with  such  admira- 
tion that  we  should  recognize  that  since  then  fresh  light 


160  Waymarks. 

has  dawned  upon  the  world,  and  that  a  larger  wisdom 
waits  to  guide  our  hearts  and  gifts  to-day. 

I.  There  are,  we  are  told,  new  problems  that  confront 
us  in  America  at  this  hour,  and  the  building  of  cathe- 
drals will  not  help  to  solve  them.  There  are  new  tasks 
waiting  for  the  Church  of  God  in  this  land,  and  stately 
and  splendid  ecclesiastical  architecture  is  not  the  agency 
to  achieve  them.  "  This  is  a  practical  age,  and  its 
evils  await  a  direct  and  practical  solution.  We  want 
the  college  ;  we  want  the  hospital  ;  we  want  the 
reformatory  ;  we  want  the  creche  and  the  orphanage,  the 
trades-school  and  the  trained  nurse,  the  hygienic 
lecturer  and  the  free  library,  the  school  of  arts  and  the 
refuge  for  the  aged,  but  we  do  not  want  the  Cathedral." 

Yes,  dear  brethren,  we  want  all  these  things,  and  a 
great  many  others  for  which  they  stand.  But  I  venture 
to  submit  that  we  want,  a  great  deal  more  than  we  want 
any  or  all  of  them,  the  spirit  that  inspires  and  originates 
them.  And  if  at  this  point  we  are  told  that  that  spirit 
is  abroad  in  the  world,  and  that  it  is  that  regenerating 
force  which  is  known  as  the  "  enthusiasm  of  human- 
ity," the  altruism  of  the  positive  philosophy,  then  I 
commend  to  any  candid  mind  a  recent  controversy  be- 
tween two  eminent  Englishmen,  neither  of  whom  believes 
in  God,  —  I  mean  Mr.  Frederick  Harrison  and  Mr.  Her- 
bert Spencer,  —  and  one  of  whom  has  perhaps  exercised 
as  much  influence  over  the  thinking  of  his  generation  as 
any  single  man  now  living.  It  was  certainly  not  be- 
cause of  any  enthusiasm  for  Christianity  that  Mr. 
Spencer  lately  dealt  such  crushing  blows  at  the  religion 


The  Cathedral  Idea.  161 

of  the  Positive  Philosophy.  It  was  certainly  not  because 
to  his  own  vision  the  religion  of  the  New  Testament 
appealed  with  such  resistless  spell  that  one  of  the 
ablest  minds  in  our  age  has  confessed  lately  with  such 
pathetic  candor  that  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity  was 
insufficient  for  the  tasks  to  which  it  has  set  itself ;  and 
his  testimony  at  this  point  is  therefore  all  the  more 
instructive.  We  may  disparage  Christianity  as  we  will, 
but  the  helpful  and  humane  activities  of  Christendom 
are  explicable  by  no  other  key.  It  is  because,  behind  all 
that  men  are  doing,  whether  in  this  or  any  other  land, 
to  lift  men  up,  there  is,  whether  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously, the  spell  of  those  miglity  truths  which  are 
incarnated  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  —  the  truth  of 
God's  fatherhood  and  of  man's  redemption ;  of  God's 
love  and  of  man's  need  ;  of  God's  judgment  and  of  man's 
accountability,  —  that  men  have  suffered,  and  wrought 
and  taught,  have  given  of  their  substance,  and  have 
consecrated  their  lives  to  make  this  old  world  a  fairer 
home  for  man,  and  to  soften  and  dispel  its  griefs.  Go 
where  you  will,  ask  whom  you  please,  and  the  answer 
must  needs  be  the  same.  The  hands  that  have  reached 
down  to  snatch  the  perishing  from  the  jaws  of  death 
and  give  them  back  to  life  again  have  been  Christian 
hands.  The  feet  that  have  run  swiftest  and  soonest 
on  all  helpful  and  healing  errands  have  been  Christian 
feet.  The  eyes  that  have  seen  the  deepest  into  all 
our  sore  and  perplexing  social  problems  have  been 
Christian  eyes,  and  the  lips  that  have  spoken  the 
most  quickening  and  consoling  words,  when  all  other 

11 


162  Wat/marks. 

lips  were  dumb,  have  been  those  of  Christian  men  and 
Christian  women. 

All  around  us  in  the  two  cities  which  make  one 
mighty  camp  of  tireless  and  heroic  toilers  on  the  side  of 
charity  and  humanity,  there  are  those  palaces  of  mercy 
and  of  refuge  which  have  already  made  of  our  American 
philanthropy  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Who  reared 
them,  and  who  sustain  them  ?  Take  out  of  their  sup- 
porting constituency  the  men  and  women  who  believe  in 
God  and  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  and  they 
would  ere  long  crumble  to  the  ground.  Neither  the 
enthusiasm  of  humanity,  nor  ethical  culture,  nor  an  en- 
lightened selfishness,  nor  any  other  of  those  panaceas 
which  are  offered  for  our  acceptance  in  exchange  for  the 
faith  of  the  Crucified  would  sustain  them  for  a  single 
generation. 

But  whence  did  they  who  have  been  moved  by  that 
faith  derive  it  ?  Did  they  evolve  it  from  their  own  con- 
sciousness ?  Did  they  dream  it  in  their  comfortable 
leisure  ?  or  did  they  learn  it  from  the  Church  of  God 
and  in  the  house  of  God  ?  What  oracle  has  taught  men 
the  wisdom  to  devise,  and  the  love  to  toil,  and  the  un- 
selfishness to  spend,  unless  it  be  those  lively  oracles  of 
which  the  Church  is  at  once  the  keeper  and  the  dis- 
penser ?  Say  that  men  have  come  to  own  the  great  fact 
of  the  brotherhood  of  humanity,  where  in  all  the  world 
have  they  been  taugVit  that  fact  so  eloquently  as  when, 
kneeling  round  the  same  altar,  prince  and  peasant  side 
by  side,  they  have  sat  at  one  table  and  eaten  of  one 
bread  and  drunk  of  one  cup  ?    Ah !  how  the  majesty  of 


The  Cathedral  Idea.  163 

some  mighty  temple,  august  and  solemn  and  still,  has 
taught  man  the  greatness  of  God  and  the  littleness  and 
weakness  of  His  creature  !  And  where,  in  all  the  world, 
but  in  some  grand  and  beautiful  Cathedral,  have  men 
seen  the  splendor  of  things  unseen  mirrored  so  majes- 
tically and  persuasively  in  things  seen  ?  The  cathedral 
an  anachronism  I  And  yet  what  voices  have  rung  through 
its  vaulted  aisles  since  Savonarola  thundered  in  the 
Duomo  at  Florence,  and  Lacordaire  thrilled  all  France 
from  the  pulpit  of  Notre  Dame,  even  as  Liddon  thrills 
all  England  from  the  pulpit  of  St.  Paul's  to-day.  What 
voices  of  warning  and  rebuke,  what  messages  of  hope 
and  pardon,  have  been  heard  within  Cathedral  walls ; 
and  what  tired  and  aching  hearts  have  climbed  up 
there  upon  the  stairway  of  celestial  song,  and  com- 
muning with  God,  their  Father,  have  been  quickened, 
and  renewed,  and  comforted  !  I  do  not  say  that 
these  things  have  not  come  to  pass  in  other  sanc- 
tuaries humbler  and  less  costly  than  a  Cathedral,  but 
I  do  say  that  this  is  the  office  of  the  sanctuary  in 
our  human  life ;  and  I  maintain  that  that  structure 
which  stands  for  influences  so  potent  and  so  supreme 
cannot  be  too  stately,  too  spacious  or  imperial,  and  most 
surely  cannot  be  an  anachronism  in  any  age  or  in  any 
land.  It  is  a  King's  House,  nay,  the  House  of  the 
King  of  kings;  it  is  the  visible  home  and  symbol  of 
all  those  forces  that  are  mightiest  in  history  and  most 
indispensable  in  our  civilization.  Shame  on  us  if  we  be- 
little its  object  or  begrudge  its  splendor.  Shall  we  dwell 
in  ceiled  houses,  decked  with  cedar  and  vermilion,  and 


164  Way  marks. 

shall  the  ark  of  the  Lord  dwell  in  a  tent  ?  Shall  our 
princes  and  nobles,  our  successful  men,  our  hoarders  of 
capital,  and  our  accumulators  of  vast  fortunes  rear  their 
stately  and  regal  pajaces ;  and  shall  they  and  we  dis- 
parage the  building  of  a  palace  statelier  still,  in  which 
to  worship  God  ?  Again  I  say,  shame  on  us  if  we 
do  so  ! 

II.  But  once  more  :  It  may  be  objected  that  such  a 
structure  as  this  is  an  anachronism  because  it  under- 
takes to  lift  what  may  be  called  the  institutionalism  of 
religion  into  undue  and  overshadowing  prominence. 
Granted,  it  is  said,  that  we  want  Christian  worship, 
and  that  we  want  to  give  to  God  our  best  in  offer- 
ing it,  the  parish  is  the  true  norm  of  organization,  and 
the  parish  church  the  true  home,  whether  of  Christian 
worship  or  of  ministerial  teaching.  But  this  is  not 
a  parish  church ;  it  is  a  bishop's  church,  and  as  such  it 
is  a  dangerous  illustration  of  the  centralization  of  power. 
May  we  not  well  be  afraid  that  the  Cathedral  will  over- 
shadow the  parish,  and  that  the  power  of  the  one  will 
be  the  weakness  of  the  other  ?  Let  me  say  here  that  if 
there  were  such  a  danger  we  might  well  be  afraid  of  it. 
The  parochial  system,  whatever  may  be  its  defects,  and 
I  am  not  insensible  to  them,  has  abundantly  demon- 
strated its  adaptedness  to  the  land  in  which  we  live  and 
the  elements  among  which  we  of  the  clergy  are  called  to 
work.  But  one  finds  it  hard  to  refrain  from  a  smile 
when  he  hears  the  Cathedral  and  the  Cathedral  system 
^spoken  of  as  preparing  the  way  for  the  undue  aggran- 
dizement of  the  Episcopate.     Do  those  who  utter  such  a 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  165 

warning  know  how  much,  or  rather  how  little,  power  an 
English  bishop  has,  ordinarily,  within  the  precuicts  of  an 
English  Cathedral  ?  xind  if  it  be  urged  that  those  an- 
cient foundations,  with  their  deans  and  chapters  and 
the  rest,  limiting  the  authority  of  the  diocesan  at  every 
turn,  cannot  be  taken  as  the  guarantees  of  equal  safe- 
guards in  cathedral  foundations  of  a  later  date,  the 
answer  is  simply  :  Why  not  ?  Is  the  spirit  that  spoke 
at  Runnymede  in  Magna  Charta,  in  the  ancient  charters 
of  York,  and  Chester,  and  Exeter,  extinct  among  us 
to-day  ?  Is  a  Cathedral  foundation  anything  else  than 
the  creation  of  a  Diocesan  Convention,  with  its  clerical 
and  lay  representation,  its  trained  priests  and  doctors 
and  lawyers,  its  clear-headed  men  of  business,  no  one  of 
them  too  eager  to  vote  power  even  into  the  most  tried 
and  trusted  Episcopal  hands  ? 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Cathedral  is  a  witness  to  the 
true  catholicity  of  the  Church  such  as  simply  cannot 
possibly  exist  under  any  otlier  practicable  conditions. 
As  I  have  said,  I  prize  what  is  known  as  the  parochial 
system,  and  respect  it  heartily ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied 
that  one  tendency  of  a  parochial  system,  however  effec- 
tively it  may  be  worked,  is  in  the  direction  of  nar- 
rowness and  fragmentariness  and  one-sidedness.  The 
Church  in  the  order  and  variety  of  her  services,  and 
especially  in  the  rhythmic  sequence  of  her  ecclesiasti- 
cal year,  does  much  to  preserve  what  we  have  been 
taught  to  value  as  the  proportion  of  faith.  But  who  of 
us  does  not  know  that  with  the  best  and  purest  inten- 
tions the  disposition  of  any  single  mind  is  apt  to  be  to 


166  Waymarks. 

emphasize  unduly  certain  aspects  of  the  Faith,  and  un- 
duly to  neglect  or  disesteem  others?  Who  does  not 
know,  in  a  word,  how  easy  it  is  to  fall  in  love  with  our 
own  pet  views  and  to  set  them  above  all  others  ?  We 
are  fond  of  ridiculing,  good-naturedly,  that  custom 
among  Christians  of  other  names  which  speaks  of  a 
place  of  worship  as  "  Mr.  A.'s  "  or  ''  Dr.  B.'s  church." 
But  how  is  this  different  from  or  worse  than  that  other 
usage  which  confounds  the  catholic  faith  with  Mr.  C.'s 
or  Dr.  D.'s  weekly  expositions  of  it,  and  which,  loudly 
proclaiming  the  ancient  canon  in  necessariis  unitas,  in 
dubiis  libertas,  in  omnibus  caritas,  nevertheless  prac- 
tically declares  that  there  are  no  questions  which  are  in 
dubiis  if  one's  own  pet  preacher  has  made  up  and  pro- 
claimed his  mind  about  such  doubtful  questions,  which 
henceforth  become,  forsooth,  no  longer  open  questions, 
but  necessary  dogmas,  of  all  men,  everywhere,  to  be  be- 
lieved ?  For  one  I  am  profoundly  persuaded  that  if  a 
Cathedral  had  no  other  vocation,  it  would  have  a  very 
noble  and  entirely  adequate  raison  d''etre  in  that  it  offers 
one  pulpit,  at  least,  in  every  diocese  where  the  best  and 
ablest  teachers,  carefully  and  wisely  chosen,  may  present 
those  various  aspects  of  the  Christian  faith,  whose  di- 
verse statements,  when  once  they  are  frankly  and  cou- 
rageously presented,  will  most  effectually  prepare  men 
to  discern  that  fundamental  consensus  as  to  things  di- 
vinely revealed  on  which  they  all  alike  rest.  Such  a 
pulpit  will  be  a  perpetual  protest  against  ''  teaching  for 
doctrines  the  commandments  of  men,"  and  in  its  excep- 
tional freedom  from  cramping  and  irksome  shibboleths 


The   Cathedral  Idea,  167 

will  be  a  very  fortress  of  freedom  for  the  truth  as  it  is 
in  Jesus.  And  in  sketching  such  a  pulpit  I  am  happy 
in  the  consciousness  that  T  am  dreaming  no  fair  but  im- 
possible dream  of  my  own,  but  indicating  its  settled  policy 
as  it  has  been  already  here  determined  upon  by  him 
who  has  been  called  in  the  good  providence  of  God  to  be 
its  organizing  and  executive  head.  The  example  of  this 
day  demonstrates  that  even  they  who  may  have  made 
themselves  to  be  widely  regarded  as  objects  of  suspicion 
will  not  be  unwelcome  in  this  cathedral  pulpit,  and  that 
here,  at  any  rate,  there  shall  be  witnessed  that  essential 
unity,  along  with  apparent  diversity,  which  is  the  true 
glory  of  that  Church  which  began  in  the  diversities  as 
well  as  the  agreements  of  a  Peter  and  a  Paul,  a  James 
and  a  John,  and  which  held  and  prized  them  all  because 
underneath  them  was  Another  who  is  the  Chief  Corner- 
stone,—  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever. 

111.  But  yet  again,  and  finally :  It  may  still  be  ob- 
jected that,  wliile  theoretically  there  may  be  force  in 
the  considerations  already  urged,  a  Cathedral  in  America 
is  still  an  anachronism,  because  it  is  so  essentially  alien 
to  our  national  ideas  and  our  democratic  principles. 
These  lie,  we  are  told,  at  the  very  foundations  of  our 
common  Christianity  ;  but  the  Cathedral  is  a  piece  of 
that  exaggerated  ecclesiasticism  which  in  the  Old  World 
made  of  bishops  and  churcJi  dignitaries  princes  and 
barons,  and  which  forgot  in  its  lust  of  grandeur  the 
needs  of  the  common  people. 

"  The  needs  of  the  common  people."     It  is  a  phrase 


168  Waymarhs. 

which,  as  things  exist  among  us  to-dav,  and  especially 
in  this  land,  may  well  make  us  pause  and  think  ;  and  as 
we  repeat  it  we  may  well  ask  ourselves  the  question 
sometimes,  how  far  the  Church  of  our  affections  is  seek- 
ing, first,  to  find  out  the  needs  of  the  common  people, 
and  then  to  meet  them.  Within  these  limits  I  may  not 
undertake  to  consider  that  question  in  its  broader  as- 
pects ;  but  this  1  do  undertake  to  say,  that  that  church 
can  hardly  be  said  to  be  meeting  very  effectually  the 
needs  of  the  common  people  which  treats  them  prac- 
tically as  a  pariah  caste,  to  be  relegated  in  her  statelier 
sanctuaries  to  the  back  seats,  and  to  be  made  to  feel  in 
the  Lord's  House  that  they  are  not  honestly  welcome. 
I  undertake  to  say  that  one  need  of  the  common  people 
is  to  have,  somewhere,  somehow,  some  substantial  evi- 
dence that  the  Church  which  reads  in  her  services  the 
Epistle  General  of  Saint  James  believes  it  too,  and  that 
when  she  declares  with  Saint  Peter  that  what  God  hath 
cleansed  that  we  are  not  to  call  unclean  she  believes 
that  too.  Nay  more,  I  venture  to  affirm  that  if  the 
same  Apostle  said  to  Simon  Magus,  "  Thy  money  per- 
ish with  thee !  "  when  that  thrifty  capitalist  proposed  to 
buy  into  the  Church  of  God  as  men  buy  into  it  who  buy 
a  pew  to-day,  we  who  claim  to  be  of  the  Apostolic  suc- 
cession in  our  ecclesiastical  faith  and  order  may  well 
remember  that  that  temple  best  meets  the  needs  of  the 
common  people  which  is  free  and  open  to  all  comers,  of 
whatever  rank  or  caste  or  condition.  Observe  I  am  not 
now  holding  any  man  living  responsible  for  that  system 
of  buying  and   selling  so  many   square   feet   in    God's 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  169 

House,  which  no  man  living  created,  and  from  which  I 
am  disposed  to  believe  few  men  living  would  not  gladly 
be  free  ;  but  I  do  maintain  that  if  anything  which  re- 
lates to  the  practical  working  of  the  Church  in  this  age 
is  an  anachronism,  such  a  system  as  I  have  referred  to 
is  in  this  nineteenth  century  of  the  religion  of  the  Gali- 
lean peasant,  Jesus  Christ,  of  all  anachronisms  the  most 
gigantic. 

Turn  from  it  now  for  a  moment  to  another  spectacle, 
which  in  our  mother  Church  of  England  is  one  of  the 
most  suggestive  to  be  witnessed  in  modern  times.  Has 
any  one  within  the  sound  of  my  voice  to-day  been  pres- 
ent at  St.  Paul's- Cathedral  in  London,  or  at  Chester, 
or  Worcester,  or  Ely,  or  Durham,  or  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  at  a  people's  service  ?  Are  there  any  such  vast 
and  attentive  congregations,  is  there  any  more  vigorous 
and  masculine  preaching,  anywhere  else  in  Christen- 
dom? Do  we  know  of  tlie  wonderful  revival  of  life  and 
energy  in  the  English  Church,  and  of  the  spiritual  quick- 
ening and  awakening  of  the  English  people  ?  1  would 
not  belittle  one  of  the  manifold  agencies  and  influences 
by  which  that  awakening  has  been  wrought,  but  I  declare 
here  my  profound  conviction  that  no  one  thing  in  this 
generation  has  done  more  to  rehabilitate  the  Church  of 
England  in  the  affections  of  the  people  of  England  than 
the  free  services  of  her  great  Cathedrals,  and  chief 
among  them  all  the  services  in  her  metropolitan  Cathe- 
dral, which,  welcoming  every  comer  absolutely  without 
distinction,  and  giving  to  him  constantly  and  freely  her 
very  best,  has  made  men  feel  and  own  that  she  is  indeed, 


170  Waymarhs, 

as  she  claims  to  be,  the  Church  of  the  people.  De- 
pend upon  it,  we  cannot  afford  to  ignore  the  signifi- 
cance of  her  example.  When  once  we  have  lifted  our 
fairest  and  costliest  to  the  skies,  and  then  have  flung  its 
doors  wide  open  to  the  world,  the  world  will  understand 
that  what  we  say  of  brotherhood  in  Christ  we  mean. 

And  so  let  us  be  glad  and  thankful  that  this  stately 
and  beautiful  temple  has  been  builded  here,  —  yes,  here, 
and  not  anywhere  else.  The  wise  and  far-sighted 
founder  of  this  fair  city  in  the  fields  might  easily,  had 
he  taken  counsel  of  that  utilitarian  spirit  which  rules 
the  age,  have  dedicated  this  site  to  another  and  very 
different  use.  He  might  have  built  a  factory  (the  last 
letter  from  his  hand  which  ever  reached  me  was  one 
giving  me  access  to  the  famous  silk  factories  of  Lyons), 
or  he  might  have  reared  here  a  hospital,  or  an  inn,  or  a 
music-hall ;  and  if  he  had,  and  if  he  had  spent  millions 
upon  some  such  undertaking  and  blazoned  it  all  over 
with  his  own  name,  who  does  not  know  how  the  air 
would  have  rung  with  his  praises  as  a  wise,  shrewd, 
hard-headed,  practical,  common-sense  man  ?  But  he  set 
about  instead  to  rear  a  House  of  God  ;  and  other  hands, 
bound  to  him  by  the  closest  and  most  sacred  ties,  have 
taken  up  his  work  and  carried  it  on  to  its  noble  comple- 
tion, not  to  glorif}'  any  earthly  name,  but  to  the  glory 
and  honor  of  the  Incarnate  Christ ;  and  thus  the  palace 
has  been  builded  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord  God. 
No  human  creature,  however  worthy,  will  have  homage 
here,  but  only  God  ;  and  to-day  we  come  to  ask  Him  to 
take  this  house  and  keep  it  as  His  own  forever. 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  171 

Yes,  and  more  than  this  ;  for  such  a  building  as  this 
proclaims  to  all  the  world  that  underneath  the  pros- 
perity of  any  community  that  lives  there  must  be  a 
steadfast  faith  in  the  unseen  and  a  steadfast  faith  in 
Him  who  has  revealed  the  unseen  to  us.  It  is  on  this 
faith  that  every  nation  that  has  endured  has  first  of  all 
been  builded.  It  is  in  this  faith  tliat  those  peasants  of 
Galilee  whom  their  Master  sent  to  preach  His  Gospel 
to  a  scornful  and  unbelieving  generation  went  fortli  and 
conquered  the  world. 

And  if  it  be  said  they  went  without  purse  or  scrip,  and 
that  they  reared  no  costly  temples ;  if,  in  other  words,  I 
am  reminded  of  what  is  called  the  simplicity  '*  of  the 
early  Church,"  —  of  the  upper  chamber  in  Jerusalem,  or 
the  unadorned  proseuche  that  sufficed  for  Apostolic  dis- 
ciples, —  I  answer,  I  do  not  forget  them.  But  neither 
may  any  one  of  us  forget  that  such  was  the  best  they 
had.  No  more  is  asked  from  us  ;  but  less  than  this  no 
true  devotion  has  ever  given.  In  ages  and  among  Chris- 
tian people  where  the  sanctuary  has  been  bare  (as  in  the 
case  of  our  own  land  and  our  forefathers),  so,  too,  has 
been  the  private'  house.  But  it  is  ever  a  fatal  sign  of  art 
decaying  into  luxury,  and  religion  into  contempt,  when 
men  permit  the  house  of  God  to  be  meaner  than  their 
own,  and  when  they  allow  to  their  domestic  pleasure 
what  they  refuse  to  the  worship  of  the  Maker  and  Giver 
of  all. 

It  is  because  this  holy  and  beautiful  house  is  the  most 
effectual  protest  against  such  a  tendency — a  tendency 
to  which  no  thinking  man  who  knows  anything  of  the 


172  Waymarhs, 

scale  of  expenditure  for  the  splendor  and  luxury  of  liv- 
ing in  our  great  cities  can  be  insensible  —  that  we  may 
well  hail  this  day  and  this  gift  of  God  with  deep  and 
intelligent  rejoicing.  The  Church  in  our  land  waits  yet 
to  see  a  gift  which  can  at  all  compare  with  it ;  and  while 
we  are  here  to-day  chiefly  to  consecrate  this  Cathedral, 
we  may  not  forget  that  this  sanctuary  of  religion  is  but  a 
part  of  a  larger  whole,  —  a  whole  whose  several  parts,  so 
wisely  planned  and  nobly  executed,  demands  our  unstinted 
admiration  and  gratitude.  They  well  called  in  the  elder 
days  any  considerable  gift  for  religious  or  charitable 
purposes  a"  foundation."  The  word  is  most  descriptive 
here ;  for  here  have  been  laid  foundations  broad  and 
deep  for  Christian  worship,  for  Christian  education,  and 
for  Christian  and  paternal  oversight.  No  dreamer  is 
needed  here  to  see  in  this  princely  work,  all  centring 
in  this  beautiful  cathedral,  the  promise  of  quickened 
diocesan  life  streaming  forth  from  this  gracious  centre, 
—  a  rallying-point  and  resting-place  for  all  the  clergy  of 
the  diocese,  an  elevated  type  and  example  of  the  Church's 
worship,  a  distributing  centre  of  diocesan  activities,  and 
a  home  and  seat  for  the  guiding  hand  and  head  whom 
God  has  called  here  as  its  bishop.  No  dreamer  is  needed, 
I  say,  to  see  in  this  work  such  a  promise,  for  already  its 
seed  is  here,  deep-sown  with  no  mean  or  stinted  hand. 
May  God  water  that  seed  with  His  grace,  and  so  make 
it  to  bear  fruit  abundantly. 

It  is  in  view  of  such  considerations  that  we  congratu- 
late those  whose  work  and  gift  this  is,  and  bless  God 
that  He  put  it  into  their  hearts  to  make  it.     We  remem- 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  173 

ber  with  grateful  appreciation  that  this  princely  benefac- 
tion comes  to-day  from  her  hand  who  lays  it  upon  God's 
altar  unfettered  by  halting  conditions  and  unspoiled  by 
unworthy  reserve.  And  we  remember,  too,  with  equally 
cordial  appreciation  the  wisdom  and  energy  that  have 
guided  this  work  in  its  progress  and  brought  it  to  its 
successful  conclusion.  "  Forasmuch  as  it  was  in  thine 
heart  to  build  an  house  for  My  name,  thou  didst  well 
that  it  was  in  thine  heart."  "  Now,  therefore,  arise, 
0  God,  into  Thy  resting-place.  Thou  and  the  ark  of  Thy 
strength !  Let  Thy  priests  be  clothed  with  righteous- 
ness, and  let  Thy  saints  sing  with  joyfulness." 

My  dear  brother,  and  father,  and  friend  ;  ^  this  con- 
gregation of  your  own  people  and  of  mine  will  surely 
indulge  me  in  one  word  more,  if  I  add  to  those  other 
felicitations  which  especially  belong  to  this  day  our 
loving  congratulations  to  you.  To  few  men  is  it  given 
to  see  the  end  of  so  large  and  anxious  a  work  as  that 
which  your  eyes  to-day  behold,  crowned  with  such  ripe 
success.  May  God  make  this  powerful  instrument  for 
His  service  rich  and  effectual  for  blessing  in  your  wise 
and  resolute  hands !  May  He  give  to  you  and  your 
flock  rest  and  peace  in  this  holy  place,  and  make  it  a 
benediction  to  all  your  sea-girt  diocese.  Here,  like  a 
rock  above  the  waves,  may  it  stand,  to  be  a  refuge  and  a 
beacon  for  many  generations  ;  and  here,  amid  the  cease- 
less cares  and  trials,  the  often  loneliness  and  sorrow- 
fulness of   your  weighty  office,  may  you  iind  strength 

^  These  Avords  were  addressed  to  the  bishop,  the  Kt.  Rev.  A.  N.  Little- 
john,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


174  Waymarhs. 

and  calm  within  these  holy  courts,  and  the  dove-like 
ministries  of  the  Comforter.  One  at  least  of  yom^ 
brethren  —  nay,  why  do  I  say  one  only,  when  1  am  sure 
that  I  speak  for  all  the  rest  ?  —  is  glad  that  this  happy 
day  has  come  to  you  and  that  this  noble  gift  has  come 
with  it.  If  I  may  speak  for  the  mother  who  bore  you 
and  whose  spires  we  may  almost  see  from  the  spot  on 
which  we  stand,  New  York  is  glad  in  the  blessing  that 
has  come  to  Long  Island,  and  —  may  1  not  say  it,  too? — a 
little  proud  that  it  has  come  to  you  from  one  of  her  own 
spiritual  children.  If  you  have  reckoned  us  your  debtors 
in  the  past,  you  will  surely  own  that  the  debt  is  cancelled 
to-day,  and  that  with  no  niggard  hand.  For  if  this  is, 
after  all,  but  the  gift  of  one,  behind  it  are  the  hearts  of 
all !  Truly  the  lines  are  fallen  to  you  in  pleasant  places, 
and  you  have  a  goodly  heritage.  But  none  too  goodly 
is  the  shrine  for  that  Eternal  King  whose  glory  we  pray 
may  henceforth  and  always  fill  it.  As  we  look  about  us 
here  to-day,  those  words  of  Wordsworth's  spring  un- 
bidden to  the  lips  :  — 

"  Tax  not  the  royal  saint  with  vain  expense, 
With  ill-matched  aims  the  architect  who  planned, 
Albeit  laboring  for  a  scanty  band 
Of  white-robed  scholars  only,  this  immense 
And  glorious  work  of  fine  intelligence. 
Give  all  thou  canst,  high  heaven  rejects  the  lore 
Of  nicely  calculated  less  or  more. 
So  deemed  the  man  who  fashioned  for  the  sense 
These  lofty  arches,  spread  that  branching  roof, 
Self-poised  and  scooped  into  ten  thousand  cells, 
Where  light  and  shade  repose  ;  where  music  swells, 
Lingering  and  wandering  on,  as  loath  to  die ; 
Like  thouglits  whose  very  sweetness  yieldeth  proof 
That  they  were  born  for  immortality." 


The   Cathedral  Idea,  175 

Fair  is  the  house  which  art  has  reared  amid  this  rural 
loveliness.  May  God's  abiding  presence  make  it  fairer 
still.  May  weary  souls,  wakened  out  of  their  sleep  of 
sin,  learn  to  cry  with  Jacob,  when  he  came  to  Beth-el, 
"  This  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God ;  this  is  the 
gate  of  heaven."  And  when  the  end  shall  come,  then 
may  the  Lord  rehearse  it,  when  He  writeth  up  the  bede- 
roll  of  His  saints,  that  many  souls  were  ripened  here  for 
that  more  glorious  house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal 
in  the  heavens ! 


XI. 


SEEMON   PEEACHED   AT   THE    BENEDICTION   OF 
ALL     SAINTS     CATHEDEAL,     ALBANY,    N.    Y., 

NOV.    20,    1888. 

/  was  glad  luhen  they  said  unto  me,  we  will  go  into  the  House 
of  the  Lord.  For  thither  the  tribes  go  up,  even  the  tribes 
of  the  Lord.  For  there  is  the  Seat  of  Judgment,  even  the 
Seat  of  the  House  of  David.  — Psalm  cxxii.  1,  4,  5. 

The  choice  of  the  preacher  for  this  day  is  not  felici- 
tous, and  this  consciousness  cannot  be  more  keenly 
present  with  you  who  hear  than  with  him  who  speaks. 
If  there  were  no  other  nearer  in  many  ways  to  your 
Bishop  and  worthier  for  such  a  task,  it  would  still  be 
most  appropriately  performed  by  one  in  whose  tones 
there  could  be  no  suspicion  of  the  ardor  born  of  merely 
personal  interests  or  prepossessions.  In  the  American 
mind  of  to-day  the  question  of  the  Cathedral  is  still  an 
open  question.  If  there  are  those  who  believe  that  it  is 
something  which  may  have  a  rightful  place  in  our  mod- 
ern ecclesiastical  life,  there  are  others,  and  among  them 
churchmen,  as  well  as  those  who  are  most  remote  from 
the  Church,  who  regard  it  simply  as  an  anachronism, 
having  no  good  end  to  serve,  nor  any  right  to  be.  That 
question   cannot  well  be  ignored  this  morning ;  but  I 


The  Cathedral  Idea,  177 

think  you.  will  agree  with  me  that  it  would  best  be  dis- 
cussed by  one  who  was  not  himself  irrevocably  committed 
to  one  view  of  it,  and  least  of  all  by  one  whose  opinions, 
it  may  be  said,  may  easily  enough  be  guessed  before  he 
has  expressed  them.  There  are  those  in  our  American 
Episcopate  (and  one  pre-eminently,  whose  presence  here, 
as  primate  of  our  American  Church,  must  be  among  our 
chief  joys,  —  whose  task,  I  believe,  I  am  performing, 
gladly  discharging  thus  ancestral  obligations  incurred 
long  ago),  who,  so  far  as  any  personal  interest  in  this 
question  is  concerned,  stand  wholly  outside  of  it.  They 
have  not  undertaken  —  there  is,  so  far  as  I  know,  no 
probability  that  they  ever  will  undertake  —  any  such 
work  as  that  which  we  are  here  to  set  forward.  And 
their  calmer,  more  disinterested  judgment  would  be  of 
pre-eminent  value. 

If,  however,  nothing  of  such  a  nature  is  at  my  com- 
mand, I  may  at  least  offer  in  the  place  of  it  some  words 
which,  though  repeated  to-day  were  most  of  them  spoken 
long  ago,  and  which,  when  they  were  originally  written, 
had  for  their  author  one  who  certainly  stood  as  entirely 
outside  of  any  Cathedral  scheme  as  any  bishop,  priest, 
or  deacon  in  the  land.  Some  fifteen  years  ago,  a  few 
clergymen  in  the  city  of  New  York  were  in  the  habit  of 
meeting  for  the  reading  and  discussion  of  papers  on 
subjects  historical,  theological,  and  ecclesiastical.  I 
shall  rehearse  this  morning  the  substance  of  one  of  these 
papers  which  discussed  the  Cathedral  in  America. 
Whatever  may  be  the  value  of  the  opinions  it  expresses, 
they  were  not  the  views  of  an  interested  person.     They 

12 


178  Way  marks. 

were  written  to  promote  no  enterprise  then  present  or 
probable,  nor  to  justify  any  scheme  which  was  then  even 
so  much  as  dreamt  of.  They  were  simply  convictions 
which  had  been  reached  by  dispassionate  reading  and 
reflection,  and  no  boldest  prophet  would  then  have  cared 
to  predict  that  their  author  would  ever  be  likely,  under 
those  circumstances  which  have  since  then  come  to 
pass,  to  have  a  personal  motive  for  attempting  their 
realization. 

I  shall  do  little  more  than  substantially  restate  them 
now,  and  in  view  of  their  history,  I  venture  to  think 
that  1  have  a  right  to  ask  that  in  listening  to  them  you 
w^ill  elimiuate  the  personal  element  altogether.  They 
are  not  Episcopal  opinions  formulated  to  justify  a  line 
of  action  already  entered  upon ;  they  were  simply  the 
deliberate  conclusions  of  a  parish  priest,  derived  from 
impartial  study  and  observation,  and  set  down  nearly 
twenty  years  ago. 

At  that  time  the  situation  was  both  somewhat  like 
and  somewhat  different  from  that  which  confronts  us 
to-day. 

On  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  was  to  be  seen  the  gradual 
dawning  and  development  of  the  Cathedral  idea ;  while 
on  the  other  there  was  a  characteristic  impatience  of  the 
Cathedral  reality.  It  had  been  in  England  a  period  of 
almost  destructive  criticism;  while  in  America  it  was 
an  era  of  enthusiastic  inauguration.  On  one  side  of  the 
water  the  cry  had  been,  "  Cathedrals  and  the  Cathedral 
system  are  alike  failures.  The  venerable  building  of 
the  nineteenth  century  is  an  anachronism,  and  its  staff 


The   Cathedral  Idea,  179 

of  more  or  less  studious,  but  inert,  clergy  an  offensive 
incongruity."  In  a  Church  Congress  at  Leeds  a  Dean 
of  Durham  related  that  he  had  been  the  recipient  of  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "  What  is  the  use  of  Deans  ? "  and, 
in  an  admirable  paper  on  "  Suggested  Improvements  in 
Cathedrals,"  he  concluded  with  an  appeal  for  active  co- 
operation in  such  improvements,  on  the  ground  that 
nothing  less  than  prompt  action  would  save  the  Cathe- 
dral system  from  "  parliamentary  attacks."  In  a  word 
the  tone  of  English  criticism  was  either  hostile  or  apolo- 
getic ;  while,  at  the  same  time  in  our  own  land,  we 
were  assured  that  the  Cathedral  was  an  ecclesiastical, 
nay,  a  religious  necessity. 

Antagonistic  as  such  opinions  seem  to  be,  they  sprang, 
in  reality,  from  the  same  root.  During  the  previous 
years,  the  Church  of  England  had  witnessed  a  mar- 
vellous revival  in  spiritual  life.  The  stir  of  awakened 
vigor  had  been  felt  through  every  remotest  member  of 
the  whole  body ;  and  thus  the  criticism  of  the  Cathedral 
system,  as  it  then  existed  in  England,  was  at  once 
natural  and  intelligible.  On  the  one  hand  it  was  urged, 
"  Here  are  stately  edifices,  not  always  opened,  rarely 
filled.  Attached  to  them  are  numerous  clergy,  very  few 
of  whom  are  resident  in  the  Cathedral  city,  and  almost 
all  of  whom  are  pluralists.  This  body  of  clergy  con- 
sumes large  revenues,  and  does  very  little  strictly  minis- 
terial work.  True,  they  cultivate  learning  and  polite 
letters,  and  write  books,  and  translate  Greek  plays; 
but  over  against  them  are  clamoring  the  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  spiritually  destitute  and  untaught  people,  men. 


180  Waymarks, 

women,  and  saddest  of  all,  children,  with  whom  Chris- 
tian England  to-day  is  teeming.  "  What,"  it  was  some- 
what impatiently  demanded,  "is  the  Cathedral  system 
doing  for  the  rescue  of  the  degraded  classes,  the  diminu- 
tion of  pauperism,  the  evangelization  of  the  masses  ? " 
And  the  answer  then  must  needs  have  been,  "  Not  much, 
anywhere ;  and  in  more  than  one  Cathedral  city,  almost 
nothing  at  all."  Was  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  some 
people  were  impatient  of  moss-grown  ruins,  which,  how- 
ever venerable  and  interesting  historically,  seemed  only 
to  block  the  onward  march  of  the  Church,  and  to  waste 
its  substance  in  a  sort  of  devotional  dilettanteism  ? 
What  were  wanted  were  agencies  which  should  not  only 
centralize  power,  but  distribute  it;  which  should  not 
merely  gather  learning  and  numbers,  but  should  send 
them  forth  again  to  do  some  effective  and  appreciable 
work. 

And  so,  in  America,  what  had  deepened  dissatisfaction 
with  Cathedrals  in  England  had  called  them  into  being. 
The  same  sense  of  urgent  work  to  be  done,  the  same 
need  of  organized  and  aggressive  activities  to  accom- 
plish it,  the  same  want  of  a  diocesan  centre  of  life,  a 
centre  Avhich  should  not  be  so  much  conservative  as 
aggressive  and  distributive,  had  led  in  the  United  States 
to  the  rapid  multiplication  of  Cathedrals. 

That  this  was  so,  we  need  only  look  at  the  Cathedrals 
then  in  existence  to  see.  Accustomed,  as  many  of  us 
are,  to  regard  the  Cathedral  as  an  elegant  and  luxurious 
appendage  of  a  wealthy  and  venerable  ecclesiasticism, 
the  first  thing  that  strikes  us  on  looking  at  the  Cathe- 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  181 

drals  which  have  already  been  reared  in  this  land  is 
that  they  are  in  hardly  any  instance  to  be  found  in 
centres  of  wealth  and  culture,  where  the  Church  is 
strong,  either  in  means  or  numbers.  On  the  contrary, 
most  of  them  are  to  be  found  in  communities  where  the 
foundations  of  the  Church  have  barely  been  laid,  where 
her  ideas  are,  to  the  vast  majority,  religious  noA'elties, 
and  where  neither  wealth  nor  numbers  are  in  any  sense 
available.  The  dioceses  in  which  a  Cathedral,  or  some- 
thing answering,  in  its  design  and  purpose,  to  a  Cathe- 
dral, are  to  be  found,  are  Nebraska,  Minnesota,  Iowa, 
Chicago,  Florida,  Indiana,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  Maine, 
Albany,  Western  New  York,  Central  New  York,  Central 
Pennsylvania,  and  Wisconsin.  Possibly,  there  are 
others,  but  I  do  not  know  them.  Now  with  two  or 
three  exceptions  none  of  these  are  among  the  older  and 
wealthier  dioceses  of  our  Church.  On  the  contrary,  but 
yesterday  some  of  them  were  not  dioceses  at  all,  but 
unorganized  missionary  jurisdictions,  hardly  explored, 
and  equally  bare,  so  far  as  Church  work  was  concerned 
of  men  and  means.  Nay,  even  to-day  at  least  ten  out  of 
these  fourteen  dioceses  are  missionary  dioceses,  in  such 
a  sense  at  any  rate  that  our  Church  in  them  is  not 
strong  enough  to  dispense  with  constant  and  consider- 
able contributions  of  both  men  and  money  from  without. 
How  came  the  Cathedral  to  be  organized  in  such  dioceses, 
unless  the  men  who  have  been  called  to  the  administra- 
tion of  their  affairs,  found  such  an  agency  indispensable 
to  the  prosecution  of  their  diocesan  work  ? 

To  this  it  has  indeed  been  answered  that  the  existence 


182  Way  marks. 

of  the  Cathedral  in  many  of  our  newer  dioceses  proved 
only  that  slavish  devotion  to  Anglican  patterns  from 
which  neither  American  bishops  nor  presbyters  have 
been  wholly  free ;  or,  that  it  illustrated  merely  that 
American  passion  for  a  pretentious  nomenclature  which 
would  fain  dignify  every  clapboard  chapel  with  a  stately 
and  sonorous  title,  —  that  passion,  in  other  words,  for 
covering  up  meagreness  of  resources  and  poverty  of 
efforts  with  ecclesiastical  parade.  But  such  an  answer 
carried  with  it  a  very  grave  imputation,  when  it  was 
considered  who  they  were  whose  motive  and  action  it 
impugned.  Churchmen  of  whatsoever  school,  were  hardly 
prepared  to  explain  the  existence  of  a  Cathedral  in  Ne- 
braska, or  in  Minnesota,  or  in  Central  Pennsylvania, 
upon  such  an  hypothesis.  It  was  obvious  that  among 
the  dioceses  which  have  been  named  were  those  of  the 
most  various  ecclesiastic  sympathies  and  affiliations,  ad- 
ministered by  bishops  of  the  most  dissimilar  churchman- 
ship  and  proclivities. 

If  from  any  of  them  one  might  have  expected  the 
slavish  devotion  to  Anglican  models  already  referred  to, 
surely  among  these  such  prelates  as  Clarkson  and 
Whipple  and  Lee  and  Howe,  Huntington  and  Armitage 
could  hardly  have  been  included.  These  men  and  others 
who  might  have  been  named  were  men  saturated  with 
the  American  spirit,  grateful,  indeed  —  as  who  is  not  ? 
—  for  the  fostering  care  of  that  "  dear  mother  the 
Church  of  England  "  from  whence  we  sprang  (as  Gov- 
ernor John  Winthrop,  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago,  so  filially  wrote),  but  manfully  conscious  of  their 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  183 

independence  as  a  National  Church,  and  of  the  supreme 
need  of  adapting  the  Church's  agencies  and  activities  to 
the  wants  of  a  living  present,  instead  of  wasting  its 
strength  in  disinterring  and  vainly  endeavoring  to  gal- 
vanize the  worn-out  methods  of  the  past.  No  one  who 
had  watched  their  work  could  have  the  hardihood  to 
affirm  that  they  had  not  grappled  with  the  problems  of 
our  American  irreligion  in  a  thoroughly  direct,  practical, 
and  intensely  earnest  spirit.  And  yet,  almost  the  first 
thing  that  some  of  them  did  was  to  set  about  building 
a  Cathedral. 

It  was  still  urged,  however,  that  such  a  fact  simply 
argued  a  spirit  of  ecclesiastical  sentimentalism,  which 
may  indeed  coexist  with  much  earnest  and  practical 
endeavor,  but  which  is  pretty  sure  to  characterize  a  cer- 
tain type  of  churchmanship.  Just  as  the  most  matter- 
of-fact  woman  has  somewhere  in  her  a  vein  of  romance, 
so,  it  was  said,  have  even  moderate  and  conservative 
bishops  and  presbyters,  of  a  certain  prevalent  type,  a 
yearning  for  the  poetry  and  the  sentiment  of  a  Cathedral. 
There  would  have  been  something,  perhaps,  in  such  an 
argument,  if  it  had  not  been  a  task  so  hopelessly  impos- 
sible to  make  it  fit  the  facts.  Among  our  frontier 
bishops,  whose  Cathedrals  have  marked  the  line  of  the 
Church's  advance  across  our  western  prairies,  have  been 
some,  perhaps,  in  whom  the  emotional,  sentimental,  or 
poetical  element  was  by  no  means  deficient ;  but  the 
vast  majority  of  them  have  been  men  supremely  of 
action,  intent  upon  real,  aggressive,  persistent  work,  and 
to  attempt  to  explain  their  Cathedrals  on  any  theory  of 


184  Waymarks, 

religious  sentimentalism  is  to   suggest  so   utter  an  in- 
congruity as  must  needs  provoke  a  smile. 

No,  the  Cathedral,  where  it  exists  already  in  our 
American  Church,  exists  because  it  stands  for  a  felt 
want,  and  witnesses  to  the  recognition,  on  the  part  of 
its  builders,  of  its  definite  function.  It  is  no  longer 
a  theory  among  us,  but  a  fact ;  and  the  comparatively 
rapid  multiplication  of  Cathedrals,  especially  in  our 
newer  dioceses,  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  want 
which  they  were  intended  to  supply,  and  the  functions 
which  they  were  intended  to  perform,  were  at  once  real 
and  definite.  What  that  want  has  been,  we  may  as  well 
let  those  who  have  most  keenly  felt  it  tell  for  them- 
selves. Said  the  Bishop  of  Minnesota,^  in  a  sermon 
preached  at  the  consecration  of  a  Cathedral  in  a 
neighboring  diocese  some  fifteen  years  ago  :  — 

''The  Primitive  Church  gave  to  the  bishop  his  Cathedral 
Church  to  be  the  centre  of  all  the  work  which  ought  to 
cluster  around  a  bishop's  home.  Our  American  branch  of  the 
Church  was  fettered  in  her  infancy  by  the  ideas  of  the 
surrounding  sects.  The  separated  clergy  stood  alone.  Each 
one  grew  more  intensely  individual  by  his  isolation.  The 
bishop  ivas,  in  theory,  the  centre  of  unity  ;  but  he  only  met 
his  clergy  once  each  year,  and  he  could  not  know  their  wants 
so  as  to  be,  in  very  truth,  their  father  in  God.  There  was 
no  diocesan  unity  in  great  plans  of  work;  and  hence  many  a 
noble  apostle  has  gone  down  in  sorrow  to  the  grave  with  a 
broken  heart.  In  the  diocese  there  were  as  many  '  uses  '  as 
individual  tastes  might  weave  into  the  service;  opinions 
became  matters  of  faith,  and  brought  party  shibboleths  and 
party  strife. 

1  The  Rt.  Rev.  H.  J3.  Whipple,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


The  Cathedral  Idea.  185 

"  The  Cathedral  Church  gives  the  diocese  what  every 
parish  cannot  give,  —  the  daily  prayer  and  meekly  Eucharist. 
No  day  should  ever  dawn,  or  sun  go  down  without  its  incense 
of  daily  prayer.  The  lonely  missionary  and  the  parish  priest 
and  the  Christians  hindered  from  such  devotions  by  worldly 
cares,  will  be  strengthened  by  the  increasing  worship  which 
here  goes  up  to  God.  There  was  a  day  when  men  revolted 
against  superstition,  and  in  their  zeal  for  simplicity,  thej- 
stripped  the  Church  to  very  baldness.  The  King's  daughter 
should  be  clothed  in  garments  of  beauty.  The  graceful 
lines  of  architecture,  the  vaulted  roof,  the  stained  glass, 
the  carving  of  the  sanctuary,  and  the  precious  emblems 
of  our  faith,  may  all  elevate  our  souls,  and  give  us  a 
deeper  realization  of  God's  presence  in  His  Church.  The 
law  of  ritual  cannot  be  left  to  the  fancies  of  the  individual 
priest.  The  bishop's  watchful  care  will  see  that  we  do  not 
symbolize  doctrines  which  the  Church  does  not  teach.  Year 
by  3'ear  the  service  will  become  more  beautiful;  and  it  ought 
to  be  the  expression  of  hearts  united  to  Christ.  Without 
this  our  beautiful  ritual  will  be  in  God's  sight  as  kingly 
raiment  upon  a  corpse.  The  Bride  of  Christ  ought  to  be 
clad  in  garments  of  beauty;  but  the  fine  linen  of  her  adorning 
is  the  righteousness  of  the  saints. 

^'  The  Cathedral  is  the  centre  of  the  diocese's  ivorJc.  Our 
Lord  sent  out  His  disciples  two  and  two.  The  greatest  of 
the  apostles  took  a  brother  on  his  missionary  journeys.  How 
much  greater  the  need  in  these  days  of  doubting  faith!  In 
our  western  fields  a  bishop's  life  is  one  of  deferred  hopes. 
He  must  often  work  without  men  or  means.  If  he  build 
a  school,  a  divinity-hall,  a  hospital,  or  home  of  mercy, 
he  must  lay  the  corner-stone  with  praj^er,  and  water  it  with 
tears,  and  believe  almost  against  hope  that  where  we  are 
blind  to  see  no  way  God  will  make  a  way.  The  bishop  is  a 
pitiable,  helpless  man,  unless  he  have  the  loving  sympathy 
and  the  kindly  aid  of  all  his  children  in  the  Lord. 


186  Waymarks. 

'■^  The  Cathedral  is  the  hisJiop^s  home.  He  is  the  father 
in  God  to  all  his  brethren.  The  best  bishop  is  the  truest 
father.  This  fatherhood  will  deepen  by  daily  contact  with 
fellow-laborers.  He  will  have  clergy  with  widely  different 
theological  views ;  they  will  have  different  plans  and  modes 
of  work;  and  he  will  give  to  all  the  liberty  the  Church 
gives.  'There  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit; 
and  there  are  differences  of  administrations,  but  the  same 
Lord;  and  there  are  diversities  of  operations,  but  it  is 
the  same  God  which  worketh  all  in  all.'  " 

To  much  the  same  purport  are  words  which  I  take 
from  the  sermon  preached  on  the  opening  of  the  edifice 
ultimately  designed  as  a  Cathedral  for  the  diocese  of 
Wisconsin,  by  him  who  was  then  bishop  of  that  dio- 
cese, the  late  Dr.  Armitage.  Anticipating  both  popular 
misapprehension  and  the  fear  of  local  rivalries  and 
jealousies,  the  bishop  goes  on  to  say :  — 

*'I  know  that  there  are  prejudices  against  the  name 
'  Cathedral, '  and  grave  misunderstanding  as  to  its  meaning. 
Some  think  it  is  a  dangerous  novelty  among  us,  in  some  way 
associated  with  extreme  doctrines  and  practices.  The  truth 
is  that  the  first  bishop  of  our  Church  in  Pennsylvania,  — 
Bishop  White,  one  of  the  most  moderate  men, —  in  his 
memoirs,  very  solemnly  gave  the  close  of  what  would  prob- 
ably be  his  last  work,  to  declare  his  conviction  that  every 
bishop  must  have  his  own  Church,  apart  from  the  parishes 
under  his  charge.  Bishop  Hobart  in  New  York  soon  after 
tried  to  enlist  his  diocese  in  the  purchase  of  a  central  site  in 
the  growing  <5ity,  to  be  occupied  for  a  Cathedral,  which  in 
due  time  would  be  sorely  needed.  Had  they  listened  to  him 
then,  or  had  his  life  been  spared  a  little  longer,  the  diocese 
would  not  now  be  busy,  as  it  is,  in  raising  $1,000,000  for  the 
mere  site  of  a  Cathedral.     The  idea  and  feeling  of  necessity 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  187 

are  old  in  the  Church  in  this  countiy.  In  England,  bishops 
have  always  had  their  Cathedrals,  although  Church  and  State 
have  distorted  them  into  warnings  for  us,  rather  than  models 
to  imitate.  The  practical  realization,  from  many  causes,  has 
been  of  slow  beginning  and  growth.  But  to-day,  Illinois 
Iowa,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Tennessee,  Missouri,  Maine, 
Pennsylvania,  Florida,  Indiana,  Albany,  \Yestern  Xew 
York,  — all  have,  in  some  form  or  other,  a  Bishop's  Church. 
And  this  because  experience  everywhere  shows  the  same 
need.  Almost  all  are  slow  to  attempt  to  give  permanent 
shape  to  the  organization,  and  are  wisely  W'Orking  on,  leav- 
ing the  work  to  shape  itself,  just  as  we  are  doing.  The 
work  is  the  main  thing,  and  that  can  be  as  real  in  a  humble 
chapel,  like  the  one  we  have  lately  occupied,  as  in  a  minster 
like  York  ;  without  title  and  dignity,  as  well  as  with  a  full 
staff  of  dean  and  canons  and  j)rebendaries,  and  whatever  else. 
''Now,  the  one  leading  thought  on  the  whole  subject 
which  I  beg  to  have  indissolublj"  tied  to  this  building  and  to 
the  whole  work  undertaken  on  this  site  is  that  the  Bishop's 
Church  is  for  all  souls,  — free  and  open  in  every  way  to  all 
who  desire  the  ministration  of  the  Church.  A  parish  is  an 
association  of  men  who  desire  these  ministrations,  and 
provide  them  for  themselves.  If  they  are  wise  and  Christian, 
they  will  make  their  parish  a  centre  of  influence  and  work 
for  Christ,  on  the  community  outside  of  their  own  number. 
If  they  are  selfish  and  foolish,  they  will  be  content  to  let 
others  provide  for  themselves  as  they  have  done.  But  the 
Bishop's  Church  must  have  no  restriction.  The  bishop  is 
also  a  pastor,  and,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church, 
is  sent  to  care  for  all  souls  within  his  field.  And  while  he 
will  wisely  multiply  parishes,  and  rejoice  in  every  new 
congregation  which  is  formed,  he  will  always  see  the  need  of 
having  helpers  and  agencies  and  institutions,  and  a  free  and 
open  Church  to  reach  those  who  will  not  include  themselves, 
nor   even   be    included    in   those   bodies.       Men   sometimes 


188  Waymarks. 

speak  as  if  the  Bishop's  Church  and  work  would  interfere 
with  parishes,  —  would  absorb  all  their  energies,  and  bring 
about  a  dangerous  centralization.  Let  any  one  read  our 
canons,  and  see  how  carefully  the  bishop's  power  is  restricted 
on  every  side,  and  he  will  hardly  fear  that.  And  his 
Cathedral  work  will  only  supplement  that  of  the  parishes. 
The  parishes  being  united  in  the  diocese,  and  so  in  the 
Cathedral,  will  find  there,  as  results  of  their  combined  gifts, 
perhaps  means  and  agencies  which  no  one  parish  can  provide 
itself.  The  diocese  will  be  the  gainer  for  the  training  of  its 
workers,  both  clerical  and  lay,  which  will  naturally  be 
given  in  the  Cathedral,  and  the  bishop  can  thus  properly 
command  a  constant  supply  of  helpers  in  the  diocesan 
Church,  which  he  could  not  set  in  one  parish  in  preference  to 
others.  Let  it,  then,  be  understood  that  what  is  here  is  not 
the  concern  of  a  single  parish  or  congregation,  but  a  general 
work  for  the  good  of  all.  There  will  be,  of  course,  a  regular 
body  of  worshippers  here ;  but  all  worshippers  are  welcome 
whenever  they  will  come.  For  the  support  of  the  work  we 
depend  entirely  on  the  willing  offerings  of  the  people.  We 
ask  all  who  will  be  regular  worshippers,  and  as  many  more 
as  will  join  them  in  this,  at  least,  in  order  that  we  may  have 
some  basis  of  income  from  which  to  gauge  our  expenditure, 
to  pledge  a  minimum  sum  which  they  will  give  statedly  to 
our  work.  We  shall  need  the  united  and  self-denying  gifts 
of  us  all  to  carry  it  forward  with  our  increased  expenses.  I 
hope  we  shall  not  need  to  say  much  about  these  con- 
tributions; for  I  trust  that  the  spirit  is  growing  among  us 
which  will  make  every  one  glad  to  give  money  and  time  and 
work  to  the  Lord.  And  more  direct  gifts  can  hardly  be 
made  to  Him  than  in  this  work,  v/hich  pays  no  human  being 
a  dollar  beyond  his  bare  maintenance,  his  food  and  raiment; 
which  makes  no  outlays  in  the  modern  luxuries  of  worship,  so- 
called,  and  which  is  sending  out  from  house  to  house,  and 
from   soul  to  soul,    in   this    community    and    its    neighbor- 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  189 

hood,  Christian  men  and  women  intent  on  helping  and 
winning  for  Christ,  which  maintains  worship  in  three 
places  besides  this,  and  here  will  offer  frequent  and  various 
services,  to  meet  the  occasions  and  opportunities  of  all.'^ 

It  was  because  of  words  such  as  these,  the  fruit  of  the 
practical  experience  of  men  whose  wisdom  and  self- 
sacrifice  the  Church  had  already  learned  to  honor,  that 
your  preacher  reached  that  four-fold  conviction  concern- 
ing the  Cathedral  which  to-day  he  can  do  little  more 
than  rehearse.  It  is  this  :  that  in  an  American  Church 
life  there  is  a  place  for  the  Cathedral. 

(a)  As  an  elevated  type  and  example  of  the  Church's 
worship. 

(6)  As  a  distributing  centre  of  diocesan  work. 

(<?)  As  a  school  and  home  of  the  prophets. 

{d)  As  the  ecclesiastical  centre  of  the  work  and 
influence  of  the  bishop. 

(a)  The  Cathedral  has  a  foremost  function  among  us 
as  an  elevated  type  or  example  of  the  Church's  w^orship. 
Our  American  Church  allows,  w4th  great  wisdom,  a  very 
wdde  diversity  in  the  manner  of  celebrating  her  services. 
There  are  congregations  where  the  baldest  simplicity 
may  be  found,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  most  ornate 
ritual,  on  the  other  ;  and  these  differences  in  the  "  use  " 
obtaining  in  different  parish  Churches  contribute  to 
adapt  the  Church's  services  to  a  very  various  class  of 
worsliippers.  But  the  unreserved  indulgence  of  these 
differences  is  not  without  its  dangers.  On  the  one  hand 
a  passion  for  splendor,  an  aesthetic  delight  in  cere- 
monial, may  carry  our  services  to  the  verge  of  an  almost 


190  Waymarks. 

servile  imitation  of  rites  and  customs  which  have  no 
place  in  our  reformed  Catholic  Church  ;  and,  on  the 
other,  these  extravagant  usages,  or  a  desire  to  protest 
against  them,  by  act  as  well  as  by  word,  will  provoke 
many  to  an  almost  ostentatious  neglect  of  all  regard  for 
what  is  only  decent  and  orderly.  If  a  clergyman's  rld- 
ing-vvhip  and  gloves  have  found  a  resting-place  upon  the 
Holy  Table,  in  the  sight  of  an  assembled  congregation, 
it  may  have  been  in  somewhat  coarse  and  impulsive 
protest  against  the  obtrusive  genuflections  and  abject 
prostrations  which  had  earlier  been  made  by  some  other 
before  that  same  altar.  And  thus,  as  we  see  in  fact, 
differences  are  intensified,  and  a  reverent  uniformitv  is 
rendered  more  unattainable  than  ever. 

But  what  shall  prevent  increasing  differences  and  a 
wider  divergency  of  opposing  customs  ?  It  has  been 
wisely  held  that  a  microscopic  and  rigid  legislation 
will  not  do  it,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  anything  will 
wholly  displace  our  present  almost  endless  variety  of 
custom.  But  if  anything  can  help  to  that  end,  it  will 
be  a  central  and  stately  structure,  where  the  Church's 
services  are  rendered  in  their  fulness  and  grandeur,  but 
with  as  close  an  adherence  as  possible  to  the  Cathedral 
worship  of  our  mother  Church.  That  worship  has  been 
shared  in  for  generations  by  men  of  every  shade  of 
opinion  and  every  variety  of  ecclesiastical  association. 
But  all  hearts  yield  to  its  spell,  and  all  minds  own  its 
dignity,  beauty,  and  impressiveness.  The  most  familiar 
tribute  to  an  English  Cathedral  service  which  has  been 
written   in    our   day   emanated    from   a   divine    of  the 


The   Cathedral  Idea,  191 

Puritan  school  of  theology,  and  of  most  rigid  Puritan 
descent.  It  certainly  ought  to  have  set  us  thinking  long 
ago,  that  no  worship  of  modern  days  has  been  so 
uniformly  approved  and  prized  by  Christians  of  q\qvj 
name  and  men  of  every  rank  as  has  the  Cathedral 
service.  If  such  a  service  has  in  it  elements  that  touch 
the  most  different  natures,  why  should  we  not  employ  it 
among  ourselves ;  and  above  all  why  should  not  we  have 
it  under  conditions  which  would  lift  it  to  be  tlie  type  and 
pattern  for  the  whole  Church  ?  In  England,  the  average 
parochial  worship  is  in  every  way  better  than  ours,  hav- 
ing more  heartiness,  and,  especially  in  the  musical 
portion,  more  of  unison,  than  among  us  is  anywhere  to  be 
found.  And  the  reason  is  that  the  Cathedral,  with  its 
spirited  services,  and  broad  and  massive  effects,  presents 
a  model  toward  which  the  parish  Churches  instinctively 
turn.  From  it,  these  get  their  best  musical  com- 
positions, their  finest  hymn-singing,  and  above  all,  that 
noble  combination  of  dignity  and  simplicity,  that  chaste 
impressiveness  and  beauty,  which,  above  all  else,  are 
distinctive  of  worship  in  the  English  Cathedrals.  An 
American  traveller  may  find  in  All  Saints',  Margaret 
Street,  in  St.  Andrew's,  Wells  Street,  in  St.  Alban's, 
Holborn  Hill,  the  most  "advanced"  ritual  which  the 
Anglican  Church  can  produce.  But  he  will,  with  per- 
haps a  single  exception,  look  in  vain  for  any  exhibitions 
of  it  in  any  English  Cathedral.  There,  as  a  rule, 
nothing  is  tawdry,  or  bedizened,  or  glaring;  but,  as  in 
the  noble  choir  at  Durham,  the  noblest  architecture, 
combined  with  the  most  absolute  simplicity ;  and  when 


192  Way  marks. 

the  worshipper  has  joined  in  the  services  he  will  find 
little  difference  between  those  in  Salisbury  and  those  at 
Ripon,  between  those  in  Canterbury  and  those  in 
Litchfield. 

Surely  there  is  something  very  significant  in  such  a 
fact ;  for  it  shows  that  there  is  that  in  a  Cathedral 
Church  which  tends  to  the  avoidance  of  extremes  and 
to  the  maintenance  of  a  dignified  and  impressive  service. 
And  if  this  is  true  of  the  Cathedral  in  England,  how 
much  more  is  it  likely  to  be  true  of  a  Cathedral  Church 
which  would  be  the  living  expression  of  the  best  religious 
sentiment  among  ourselves.  The  manifold  novelties 
that  are  caught  up  here  and  there,  and  sought  to  be  en- 
grafted on  the  services  of  our  parish  Churches,  would 
find  no  place  in  a  Cathedral,  administered  by  a  body  of 
clergy  representing  a  common  consent  and  a  united  judg- 
ment and  approval ;  and  more  than  this,  what  a  mission 
such  an  agency  would  find  awaiting  it  in  the  musical 
services  of  the  Church!  We  have  in  our  American 
Churches  a  great  deal  of  music  that  is  costly,  a  great 
deal  that  is  florid  and  pretty,  and  not  a  little  that  is 
vicious  and  intolerable.  As  compared  with  our  Angli- 
can sister,  we  are  nearly  half  a  century  behind  in  the 
right  estimation  of  hymn-singing,  and  other  much 
neglected  (or  perverted)  departments  of  musical  wor- 
ship. And  what  has  made  the  difference  but  that  in 
England  the  choral  festivals  of  the  greater  Cathedrals 
and  the  devotion  of  a  highly  skilled  and  cultivated  or- 
der of  men  to  musical  studies  and  composition  in  con- 
nection   with   those    Cathedrals,   has   lifted   the    whole 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  193 

standard  of  taste  and  the  whole  scale  of  performance 
to  a  far  higher  level  than  we  have  at  all  approached  ? 
The  present  Dean  of  Norwich,  in  his  essay  on  "  The 
Cathedral  a  School  of  Music,"  observes  that  "  it  must 
be  remembered  that  music  has  by  no  means  as  yet  taken 
that  position  in  our  services  that  it  has  a  right  to  take. 
The  minds  of  people  in  general  are  not  at  all  disabused 
of  the  notion  that  music  is  a  mere  ornamental  accessory 
of  worship  ;  they  have  not  yet  at  all  come  round  to  the 
view  that  it  is  the  highest,  truest,  deepest  expression  of 
devotional  feelings."  ^  True  as  these  words  are  in  Eng- 
land, it  is  impossible  that  they  could  more  accurately 
describe  ourselves.  In  the  last  twenty-five  years  the 
musical  w^orship  of  our  Church  has  indeed  advanced  to 
a  higher  level ;  but  it  is  still  in  many  places  pretentious, 
obtrusive,  and  bad.  It  often  consumes  more  time  than 
of  old,  provokes  more  comment,  aggravates  and  per- 
plexes more  parish  priests,  groping  blindly  and  hope- 
lessly, like  Samson  among  the  Philistines,  for  deliver- 
ance from  its  tortures  ;  but  it  is  far  from  what  it  ought 
to  be,  and  farther  still  from  what  it  easily  might  be  ;  and 
it  will  continue  to  be  so  until  we  have  some  such  normal 
school  of  Church  music  as  the  Cathedrals  have  shown 
themselves  to  be  in  England,  —  having  about  it  a  prestige 
which  cannot  be  despised,  and  illustrating  an  excellence 
which  cannot  fail  to  provoke  a  healthy  emulation. 

And  all  this  the  Cathedral  can  do  Avithout  the  likeli- 
hood of  being  beguiled  into  undue  display  or  betrayed 
into  foolish  extravagance.     In  the  parish  the  vagaries  of 

1  Principles  of  the  Cathedral  System,  p.  115. 
13 


194  Waymarks. 

the  individual  parish  priest  or  organist  may  run  away 
with  him  ;  but  in  a  Cathedral  there  is  an  impersonality 
of  administration  which  tends  to  restrain  eccentricity 
and  to  make  mere  individualism  almost  impossible. 
True,  the  Cathedral  is  the  bishop's  Church  or  seat ;  but 
the  bishop  who  administers  it  must  be  able  to  command 
the  co-operation  of  a  body  of  clergy,  whose  various  tastes 
and  opinions  must  at  least  greatly  modify  his  own. 
Under  such  a  system  novel  customs  will  not  be  apt  to 
find  easy  admission  ;  and  while  there  will  be,  as  there 
ought  to  be,  progress  and  improvement  in  the  Church's 
worship,  it  will  be  progress  in  the  direction  of  those 
things  only  which  have  been  widely  and  thoroughly 
tested  and  approved. 

(6)  And  next  to  this  the  Cathedral  has  a  definite 
function  as  a  distributing  centre  of  diocesan  activities. 
To  us  in  America  it  cannot  be  insignificant,  as  suggest- 
ing an  example  for  our  imitation,  that  the  Cathedral  was 
called  into  existence  for  precisely  that  end.  "  It  must 
be  granted,"  says  the  Dean  of  Norwich,  in  his  recent 
volume  on  the  Cathedral  system,^  "  for  it  is  a  matter  of 
fact,  that  a  Cathedral  was  in  its  origin  nothing  more 
than  a  missionary  station,  where  the  bishop  of  a  partly 
unevangelized  country  placed  his  seat,  and  that  the 
Cathedral  chapter  was  originally  nothing  else  than  his 
council  of  clergy  grouped  around  him,  whose  duty  was 
to  go  forth  into  the  surrounding  district  with  the  mes- 
sage of  the  Gospel,  to  plant  smaller  Churches  which 
should  be  subordinate  or  parochial  centres,  and  to  re- 

1  Principles  of  the  Cathedral  System,  Int.,  p.  xviii. 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  195 

turn  again  periodically  to  the  diocesan  Church  at  head- 
quarters, for  the  counsel  and  directions  of  their  chief." 
Could  there  be  a  more  exact  description  than  this  of  the 
relation  which  there  is  (or  ought  to  be)  between  a  mis- 
sionary bishop  (and  many  diocesan  bishops)  and  their 
missionary  deacons  and  presbyters  ?  It  is  the  experi- 
ence of  every  bishop  that  if  he  could  command  the  ser- 
vices of  a  few  clergymen  not  settled  in  organized 
parishes,  or  anchored  by  other  ties,  whom  he  could  send 
at  opportune  moments  to  improve  new  openings,  to 
maintain  temporarily  the  Church's  services,  to  attempt 
in  a  tentative  way,  at  new  points,  a  certain  amount  of 
Church  work,  some  of  the  most  promising  fields  might 
speedily  be  made  centres  of  ecclesiastical  life  and 
activity. 

A  bishop,  like  a  general,  needs  to  have,  somewhere 
among  his  forces,  troops  that  can  readily  be  mobilized ; 
and  the  bishop's  Church  or  Cathedral  is  obviously  the 
fitting  centre  from  which  such  a  force  may  most  readily 
and  effectively  be  distributed.  If  the  diocese  or  jurisdic- 
tion be  mainly  of  a  missionary  character,  then  the  uses 
of  such  a  staff  of  clergy  as  I  have  suggested  are  too  ob- 
vious to  require  argument ;  while  if  the  diocese  be  an 
old  and  thickly  settled  one,  with  the  Church  well  and 
strongly  established  in  its  principal  centres,  then  the 
function  of  such  a  clerical  staff  appears  the  moment  we 
consider  the  urgent  need  there  is  for  a  body  of  men  who 
shall  be  distinctively  employed  as  preachers. 

The  demands  upon  the  parochial  clergy  are  so  numer- 
ous and  complex,  the  same  man,  in  even  the  best  ap- 


196  Waymarks. 

pointed  parishes,  has  to  do  so  many  things,  that,  between 
the  pressure  of  Sunday  and  week-day  schools,  of  paro- 
chial visiting,  of  superintending  and  maintaining  chari- 
table enterprises,  "  the  pastor  in  his  study  "  is  in  danger 
of  becoming  a  vanishing  memory.  "  It  is  not  meet," 
declared  the  Apostles,  "  that  we  should  leave  the  Word 
of  God  and  serve  tables;"  and  many  an  overworked 
parish  priest  echoes  that  cry;  but  the  Church  cannot 
give  him  even  a  single  deacon,  and  so  he  struggles  on, 
to  the  detriment  of  his  own  powers,  and  equally  to  the 
detriment  of  his  ill-fed  flock,  —  his  energies  frittered 
away  amid  a  thousand  distractions  that  leave  him  only 
the  merest  fragments  of  time  in  which  to  store  his  own 
mind,  or  to  prepare  himself  to  stand  up  as  a  guide  and 
teacher  to  his  people.  What  an  inestimable  blessing  to 
such  a  man,  could  he  feel  from  time  to  time  that  he 
might  be  reinforced  by  some  brother  clergyman  from 
the  mother  Church  of  the  diocese,  whose  pointed,  fer- 
vent, vigorous  utterances  would  quicken  and  stimulate 
both  him  and  his  people. 

And  so,  too,  in  the  matter  of  the  charitable  and 
philanthropic  enterprises  of  a  diocese.  If  any  one  will 
take  the  trouble  to  look  over  the  eleemosynary  opera- 
tions of  the  Church  in  one  of  our  great  cities,  the  first 
thins:  that  must  needs  strike  him  is  the  immense  waste 
of  means  and  energy  that  invariably  characterizes  them. 
The  Church  as  a  fact  in  large  cities  is  often  simply  pure 
Congregationalism.  There  is  rarely  the  faintest  pre- 
tence of  any  common  interest  or  effort.  The  city  rector 
looks  over  the  wall  at  his  brother  rector  with  a  feeling 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  197 

in  which  indifference  and  disapprobation  are  apt  to  be 
mixed  in  about  equal  parts.  He  knows  next  to  nothing 
of  his  brother's  methods,  nor  that  brother  of  his.  Each 
one  of  them  perhaps,  or,  at  least,  each  half-dozen  clergy- 
men, have  their  pet  "  asylum  "  or  "  home,"  or  orphanage  ; 
and  in  a  community  where  one  strong  institution  would 
be  at  once  a  power  and  a  blessing  there  are  as  likely  as 
not  to  be  half  a  dozen,  each  struggling  to  exist,  and  each 
wasting  resources  which,  if  consolidated  and  adminis- 
tered with  unity  and  harmony  of  purpose,  would  do  a 
work  four-fold  greater  than  that  which  is  likely  to  be 
the  sum  of  their  isolated  efforts.  There  is  no  more  cry- 
ing need  in  our  cities  than  for  something  which  shall 
unify  the  well-meant  labors  and  wisely  aggregate  and 
administer  the  generous  benefactions  which  are  often  so 
profusely  laid  in  the  lap  of  the  Church.  And  where  can 
we  look  with  so  much  hope  for  such  a  unifying  agency 
as  to  the  diocesan  Cathedral,  with  its  board  of  trustees 
representing  every  shade  of  sentiment,  and  its  staff  of 
clergy  including  every  phase  of  theological  opinion?  - 
One  cannot  but  anticipate  the  relief  that  such  an 
agency  would  bring  to  over-taxed  pastors,  no  longer 
called  upon  to  carry  the  interests  of  sundry  struggling 
charitable  enterprises  upon  their  hearts,  in  addition  to 
the  inevitable  burdens  pertaining  to  their  own  immediate 
cure,  and  relieved  most  of  all  by  the  conviction  that 
money  was  not  being  needlessly  expended  in  the  main- 
tenance of  useless  machinery  only  half  doing  work 
which  might  be  far  more  economically  and  efficiently 
performed.     The  spirit  of  the  present  age  was  said,  in  a 


198  Way  marks. 

recent  convention  of  the  disciples  of  "  free  religion  "  to 
be  one  of  "  profuse  beneficence."  If  this  be  so,  we  may- 
well  anticipate  that  it  will  be  followed  by  an  era  of 
reaction,  when  the  popular  demand  will  be,  ^hat  are 
these  "  shelters  "  and  "  folds  "  and  orphanages  doing  to 
vindicate  their  right  to  such  large  benefactions,  such 
costly  edifices,  and  such  ample  retinues  of  attendants  ? 
And  we  shall  be  fortunate  if  we  do  not  discover,  as  the 
result  of  the  want  of  organization,  and  above  all,  of 
economic  consolidation  in  the  charities  of  our  great 
cities,  that,  as  was  recently  actually  shown  in  the  case 
of  one  of  them,  the  cost  of  maintaining  those  whom  they 
shelter  is  equal  to  the  cost  of  maintaining  such  bene- 
ficiaries at  the  most  expensive  hotel  in  the  country. 

And  yet  it  is  idle  to  hope  for  any  improvement  in  this 
state  of  things  until  we  can  have  some  central  organiza- 
tion, ecclesiastical  in  its  character,  and  yet  so  separate 
from  and  unlike  the  parish  Church  as  to  make  it  wholly 
impossible  that  there  should  be  any  rivalry  between 
them  and  it,  —  an  organization  which,  representing  all 
shades  of  ecclesiastical  sympathies,  will  administer  its 
charities  in  a  broad,  impartial,  and  truly  Catholic  spirit, 
aiming  to  build  up  no  single  parish,  nor  serve,  nor 
further  the  ends  of  any  particular  school  or  party.  If 
we  are  to  find  any  such  central  organization,  it  must  be 
in  connection  with  the  diocesan  Church,  or  in  other 
words,  the  Cathedral. 

(c)  Turning  now  to  another  office  of  the  Cathedral, 
there  is  pre-eminently  a  place  for  it  in  the  life  and  work 
of  our  American  Church  as  a  school  and  home  of  the 


The   Cathedral  Idea,  199 

prophets.  "A  school  and  home  of  the  prophets."  I 
know  how  vague  the  words  sound  and  how  remote  is 
the  thought  which  they  suggest.  In  fact  the  modern 
Church,  and  pre-eminently  our  own  Church  in  this  land, 
has  so  largely  lost  the  primitive  conception  of  the  min- 
istry that  to  many  the  words  are  doubtless  unmeaning. 
The  confusion  of  the  priestly  and  the  prophetic  offices 
has  become  so  common,  and  the  neglect  or  disesteem  of 
the  gift  of  prophesying — as  the  bishop  of  this  diocese 
nobly  witnessed  in  an  address  delivered  to  many  of 
those  to  whom  I  speak  this  morning  on  the  occasion  of 
a  recent  diocesan  convention  —  is  so  general,  that  it 
would  seem  as  if  the  Church  had  almost  forgotten  the 
commission  which  her  Lord  gave  to  her.  Yet  she  is 
"  built,"  declares  Saint  Paul,  "  upon  the  foundation  of 
the  apostles  and  prophets.''^  The  careless  exegesis  with 
which  too  often  we  read  Holy  Scripture  has  been  wont 
to  refer  that  last  word  "  prophets  "  to  the  messengers  of 
the  elder  Testament.  But  what  the  apostle  had  in  mind 
is  plain  enough  when  a  few  verses  later  in  the  same 
chapter  he  speaks  of  a  mystery  being  hidden  from  the 
holy  men  of  old,  but  "  now  revealed  to  his  apostles  and 
prophets  by  the  Spirit."  And  to  remove  all  doubt,  in  the 
same  Epistle  he  mentions  prophets  as  a  foremost  order 
of  the  Christian  ministry.  "  He  gave  some  apostles  and 
some  prophets,  and  some  evangelists,  and  some  pastors 
and  teachers,"  —  pastors  and  teachers  for  the  settled 
cure  of  souls,  prophets  and  evangelists  for  the  vindica- 
tion and  extension  of  Christ's  gospel.^ 

1  Norris,  Cathedral  Canons  and  their  Works,  p.  38. 


200  Wat/marks. 

I  maintain  that  the  Church  began  her  work  with  this 
conception  of  the  ministry,  and  that  from  apostolic  days 
to  our  own  every  great  forward  movement  has  been 
marked  by  its  recognition,  and  every  period  of  torpor  or 
decline  by  its  obscuration.  We  pass  on  from  the  first 
fervor  of  apostolic  days  and  we  come  to  the  monastic 
orders  of  Saint  Jerome.  The  thought  behind  that 
movement  was  a  purpose  to  revive  the  school  of  the 
prophets.  "  Let  bishops  and  presbj^ters,"  says  Jerome, 
"  take  the  apostles  and  apostolic  men  as  their  models ; 
we  monks  must  look  rather  to  Elias  and  Eliseus  and 
the  sons  of  the  prophets."  ^ 

So  was  it  with  the  forty  Benedictines  who  landed  on 
the  shore  of  Kent  with  the  giant  form  of  Saint  Augus- 
tine at  their  head.  These  men  were  preachers,  before 
all  else,  and  supremely  preachers,  journeying  to  and  fro 
to  proclaim  Christ  to  men,  and  so  vindicating  their 
calling  as  the  prophets  of  their  age.  Follow  up  the 
stream  of  the  Church's  life  in  our  mother  Church  of 
England.  Obscured  though  the  idea  was  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  it  was  never  wholly  lost  sight  of.  Saint  Chad  of 
Litchfield,  the  thirty  Canons  of  St.  Paul's  with  their 
Dean,  the  Friars  Minors  of  St.  Francis,  to  whom  the 
noble  Grosseteste  of  Lincoln  looked  to  "  emulate  the 
prophets  of  old,"  and  to  illuminate  the  land  lying  in 
the  shadow  of  death  with  their  preaching  and  learning,^ 
the  statutes  of  Bristol  Cathedral  as  enacted  at  the  Refor- 
mation, one  of  which  reads  "  Quia  lucerna  pedihus  nostris 

1  Ep.  58  ad  PauHnum. 

2  Robert!  Grosseteste,  Epistolse,  58,  59. 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  201 

est  Verhum  Dei,  statuimus  et  volumus  ut  Becanus  et 
Canonici,  immo  per  misericordiam  Dei  ohsecramus,  ut  in 
Verho  Dei  opportune  et  importune  seminando  sint 
seduli "  —  all  the  way  along  there  shines  forth,  amid 
whatever  temporary  loss  or  exaggeration  in  other  direc- 
tions marred  the. progress  of  the  Church,  the  gleaming 
thread  of  this  witness  to  the  paramount  necessity  of 
the  prophetic  office. 

We  have  all  but  lost  it  to-day.  There  is  not  wanting 
here  and  there  among  us  an  intelligent  recognition  of 
the  fundamental  relation  of  the  prophetic  office  —  of  the 
preacher's  calling  (for  when  I  use  the  one  word  here 
I  mean  just  as  much  the  other)  —  to  the  Church's  life  and 
progress.  But  the  thing  itself  is  rapidly  becoming  an 
extinct  species. 

It  must  needs  be  so.  Consider  for  an  instant  the 
demands  of  our  modern  parochial  life  to  which  I  have 
just  referred,  and  then  ask  yourself  what  chance  there 
is  for  the  ordinary  parish  priest  to  do  any  real  or  effec- 
tive work  as  a  preacher.  The  most  dismal  aspect  of 
the  whole  business  is  that  we  have  ordinarily  so  utterly 
dismissed  any  smallest  expectation  that  such  a  one  ever 
will  do  any  serious  or  worthy  work  in  fulfilment  of  his 
prophetic  office  that  we  cannot  interest  ourselves  in  the 
subject.  And  yet,  I  declare  before  God,  and  in  the 
solemn  light  of  His  word  and  all  the  past  history  of  His 
religion  in  the  world,  that  a  Church  which  neglects  or 
ignores  the  prophet's  office  and  the  prophet's  message  is 
doomed  to  decay,  to  dishonor,  and  to  death.  It  is  in 
vain  that  we  organize  societies,  and  build  parish  houses 


202  Waymarks. 

and  multiply  services ;  there  must  be  a  body  of  men 
who  shall  be  to  their  age  preachers,  "  prophets  who  will 
cry  aloud  and  spare  not,"  equal  to  the  vindication  of 
God's  truth  on  higher  and  more  public  tribunes  than 
the  parish  pulpit,  men  of  God  who  will  step  to  the  front 
in  times  of  doubt  and  difficulty  ;  who  will  take  a  clever 
but  sophistical  book  and  cleave  through  its  subtle  false- 
hoods with  the  Sword  of  the  Spirit,  —  "  men  who  will 
speak  the  word  for  which  a  thousand  hearts  are  waiting, 
and  speak  it  with  the  power  of  one  who  has  thought 
long  and  deeply."  ^ 

And  where  are  you  to  find  such  a  body  of  men  ?  How 
are  you  to  train  them ;  from  what  centre  shall  they  go 
forth  ?  Pray  do  not  let  any  one  of  us  be  guilty  of  the 
impertinence  of  saying  that  we  have  gotten  along  well 
enough  without  any  such  body  of  men  thus  far,  and 
that  there  is  no  need  of  them  now.  We  have  not 
gotten  on  well  enough  thus  far,  and  even  if  we 
had,  there  are  new  needs  dawning  upon  the  Church 
whose  children  we  are,  and  it  is  at  our  peril  that  we 
disregard  or  ignore  them.  Says  Canon  Westcott,^  to 
whose  calm  judgment  and  matchless  scholarship  we 
may  well  turn  in  such  a  matter  as  this,  speaking  of 
Cathedral  foundations  in  relation  to  religious  thought, 
"  The  noblest  organization  is  that  in  which  there  is  the 
most  complete  separation  of  the  functions  of  the  con- 
stituent parts.  Step  by  step  that  which  was  at  first 
capable  of  manifold  adaptations  becomes  specialized." 
And  again,  and  most  significantly,  "  The  highest  develop- 

1  Norris,  p.  44.  ^  Bishop  (1891)  of  Durham. 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  203 

ments   of  society   will   include   the   largest   variety   of 
distinct  offices  concentrated  in  different  bodies."  ^ 

Do  we  get  the  force  of  these  words  ?  What  is  there 
that  has  become  more  complex  than  our  modern  life  — 
its  needs,  its  perils,  its  employments,  its  relationships  ? 
And  we  whose  office  it  is  to  adjust  the  activities  of  the 
Church  to  the  living  situation  —  yes,  remember,  that  is 
your  calling  and  mine  —  what  are  we  doing  to  make  the 
Church  adequately  a  voice  of  warning,  of  authority,  of 
instruction  to  a  perverse  and  evil  generation  ?  There 
must  be  an  order  of  preachers  and  prophets,  there  must 
be  a  centre  of  operations,  there  must  be  a  directing 
mind,  there  must  be  adequate  training  —  in  one  word 
there  must  be  that  which  nothing  else  but  the  Cathedral, 
not  merely  as  a  building,  but  supremely  as  an  institu- 
tion (an  infinitely  more  august  and  important  aspect  of 
the  whole  question,  let  me  say)  can  adequately  supply. 

{d)  And  that  brings  me  finally  to  remind  you  that 
we  want  the  Cathedral  as  the  home  and  centre  of  the 
work  of  the  bishop.  There  is  a  tone  with  reference  to 
the  Episcopate  which  one  often  hears  in  our  generation 
concerning  which  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  it  is 
more  grotesque  as  an  anachronism  or  as  an  imbecility. 
It  is  the  tone  which  is  fond  of  depicting  the  modern 
bishop  as  an  ecclesiastical  tyrant,  —  self-willed,  over- 
bearing and  imperious.  Surely  this  ogre  is  a  creature 
simply  and  purely  of  the  imagination.  He  does  not 
exist,  simply  because  he  cannot  exist.  The  days  of  a 
"  paternal "  government,  in  the  technical  sense  of  that 

1  Essays,  p.  109. 


204  Waymarks. 

term,  are,  in  the  history  of  bishops,  forever  ended.  We 
have  come  to  the  days  of  a  Constitutional  Episcopate ; 
I  do  not  need,  I  think,  to  explain  that  phrase  to  those 
to  whom  I  speak  this  morning.  In  the  capital  of  this 
great  commonwealth  it  is  eminently  appropriate  and  sug- 
gestive. A  Constitutional  Episcopacy  is  an  Episcopacy 
"  tempered,"  if  you  choose,  not  by  Congregationalism,  or 
parochialism,  but  by  Constitutional  law.  Such  law  we 
have  {a)  in  the  constitution  and  canons  of  the  several 
dioceses,  and  {h)  in  the  constitution  and  canons  of  the 
General  Convention.  To  these  the  bishop  is  subject  in 
precisely  the  same  way,  and  certainly  in  as  large  measure, 
as  the  youngest  deacon.  And  if  these  are  not  sufficient 
to  restrain  him,  it  is  competent  to  invoke,  in  matters  that 
touch  the  material  interests  of  them  over  whom  the 
bishop  is  set,  the  common  law.  In  a  word,  whatever 
may  be  anybody's  theory  of  the  inherent  powers  of  the 
Episcopate,  they  are  limited  and  hedged  in  at  every 
hand  by  the  prescriptions  and  restrictions  of  law. 
To  these,  in  the  administration  of  his  office,  the  bishop 
must  have  perpetual  reference,  and  in  construing  and 
applying  them,  lies  a  large  part  of  his  responsibility. 
But,  plainly  enough,  he  needs,  in  so  doing,  counsel  and 
co-operation.  Indeed,  when  a  bishop  enjoins  anything 
of  a  dubious  character,  unsupported  by  the  voice  of  his 
clergy,  he  acts  on  lines  unknown  to  the  primitive 
Church,  even  as  the  maxim  of  Saint  Jerome  plainly  in- 
dicates when  it  says  :  "  Let  the  bishop  do  nothing  with- 
out his  presbyters."  How,  now,  is  such  counsel  to  be 
had  ?    Do  you  answer  through  the  Diocesan  Convention, 


The   Cathedral  Idea.  205 

or  the  Standing  Committee  ?  The  one  body  is  too  large 
and  too  unwieldy  ;  the  other  is  too  small  and  too  remote. 
The  former  statement  requires  no  proof ;  the  truth  of 
the  latter  becomes  obvious  when  you  remember  that  the 
Standing  Committee  is  made  up  usually,  of  members 
from  all  parts  of  the  diocese,  rarely  convened,  and  that 
its  members  are  largely  engrossed  with  local  and  paro- 
chial interests,  which  are,  to  most  of  them,  not  un- 
naturally, supreme.  What  we  wait  for,  especially  in  the 
due  administration  of  our  young  dioceses,  is  the  Cathe- 
dral chapter,  to  be  the  cabinet  of  the  bishop,  to  be  made 
up  of  preachers,  missionaries,  rectors,  canons,  and 
scholars,  each  one  of  whom  shall  have  a  double  tie,  first 
to  the  Cathedral,  and  then  to  some  mission  field,  to 
some  outlying  cure,  to  some  organized  parish,  to  some 
college,  or  school,  or  seminary,  to  and  fro  between 
which  they  shall  go  upon  a  service  regulated  by  rule 
(Kavcov)  and  in  all  of  which  the  bishop  shall  preside  as 
the  guiding,  restraining,  inspiring  mind.  This  I  main- 
tain is  the  restoration  of  the  lost  ideal  of  the  Episcopate, 
whereby  his  office  and  his  seat  become  of  paramount  im- 
portance to  the  whole  diocese,  as  expressing  and  im- 
pressing his  influence,  as  binding  togetlier  the  active 
life  of  the  diocese,  not  only  in  one  polity  but  in  one 
policy,  as  the  centre  of  institutions  which  surround  the 
Cathedral  and  grow  out  of  it,  even  as  in  this  instance, 
thank  God,  they  preceded  the  building  of  this  Cathe- 
dral Church. 

And  does  any  one  apprehend  that  this  will  issue  in 
the  undue  enlargement  of  the  bishop's  prerogatives  and 


206  Waymarhs. 

powers  ?  On  the  contrary,  I  maintain  that  it  is  at  once 
the  wisest  and  safest  way  to  limit  them.  No  diocese 
will  readily  consent  that  the  Cathedral  chapter  shall 
be  other  than  equitably  representative ;  no  conven- 
tion will  be  apt  to  put  itself  in  the  power  of  a  body 
which  does  not  reflect  more  than  one  aspect  of  thought 
or  one  type  of  policy ;  and  no  bishop,  unless  he  be  more 
than  obtuse  to  those  inexorable  facts  which  confront  one 
in  this  era  of  Christendom,  will  care  to  attempt  to  sur- 
round himself  with  a  college  of  advisers  which  shall  be 
pledged  simply  to  register  his  own  decrees.  The  day 
for  that  has  passed,  never  to  return  ;  and  yet  for  lack 
of  points  of  contact  with  his  diocese  a  bishop  may  so 
drift  out  of  touch  with  its  living  interests  and  aims  as 
to  be  merely  an  isolated  functionary,  impotent  as  a  ruler, 
and  more  than  impotent  as  a  leader.  1  wish  I  had  time 
here  to  show  how  in  our  mother  Church  of  England  this 
could  be  demonstrated  from  the  usurpations  of  the  mo- 
nastic order,  where  the  abbot  thrust  himself  into  the 
place  of  the  bishop,  and  where  to-day  the  dean,  who  has 
inherited  the  abbot's  place  and  powers,  has  neutralized 
the  office  of  the  bishop  in  his  own  seat,  and  stultified  the 
purpose  of  the  Cathedral  chapter. 

But  we  are  hampered  by  no  such  traditions.  Ours  it 
is,  if  we  will  consent  to  see  the  need  of  that  more  ade- 
quate organization  of  the  Episcopate  which  the  growth  of 
the  Church  demands,  to  create  such  centres  of  adminis- 
tration in  Cathedral  foundations  that,  in  addressing  our- 
selves to  those  new  tasks  which  every  day  loom  up  before 
us  in  such  vast  proportions,  there  shall  be  the  due  recog- 


The    Cathedral  Idea.  207 

nition  and  utilization  of  the  Episcopate  as  the  organic 
centre  of  the  Church's  aggressive  life. 

And  so  I  thank  God  for  what  has  been  accomplished 
here.  Noble  as  is  this  fabric  both  in  what  has  been 
completed  and  what  is  projected,  it  is  but  a  small  part 
of  the  whole.  The  great  idea  which  lies  behind  it,  —  an 
idea  which  rescues  the  Episcopate  from  isolation,  from 
the  errors  of  individualism,  and  so  from  comparative 
impotence,  —  this  is  the  thing  of  supreme  consequence, 
and  of  pre-eminent  promise. 

And  I  congratulate  you,  my  brother,  that  in  the  good 
providence  of  God  it  has  been  permitted  to  you,  and  to 
the  loyal  and  loving  flock  that  have  prayed  and  striven 
and  given  with  you,  to  achieve  so  much.  I  do  not  find 
it  easy  to  put  into  words  my  hearty  admiration  for  a 
faith  which  has  never  faltered,  for  endeavors  that  have 
never  tired,  for  a  patience  that  -^  as  I  have  watched,  1 
may  not  be  denied  the  privilege  of  saying  even  in  this 
presence  —  has  seemed  to  ennoble  your  whole  nature. 
No  one  knows  better  than  I  do  the  difficulties  you  have 
had  to  encounter.  I  was  born  and  reared  in  what  is 
now  the  diocese  of  Albany,  and  was  intimate  with  its 
traditions  long  before  you  came  to  it.  Some  of  my  most 
intimate  and  cherished  personal  friends  are  among  those 
who  in  this  whole  undertaking  have  been  most  remote 
from  sympathy  with  you.  But  they  must  suffer  me  to 
say  what  I  think  they  would  some  of  them  be  glad  to  have 
me  say,  —  that  your  meekness  and  gentleness  in  the 
face  of  much  criticism  and  often  opposition,  your  gen- 
erous magnanimity  under  circumstances  of  discourage- 


208  Waymarks. 

ment  and  alienation,  have,  as  it  seems  to  me,  only  made 
you  more  and  more  worthy  of  our  common  love  and  re- 
spect. You  have  held  to  your  own  opinions,  and  have 
advocated  them  with  a  courage  which  is  worthy  of  all 
praise  ;  and  if  you  have  differed  with  some  of  your 
brethren,  you  have  not  suffered  either  the  odium  theo- 
logicum  or  the  a7nor  Cathedralis  to  embitter  your  speech 
or  your  temper  ;  above  all,  you  have  striven  here,  as 
we  rejoice  to  believe,  not  for  yourself,  but  for  God  and 
the  honor  of  His  Church  ;  and  so  we  bless  God  to-day 
that  you  have  not  striven  in  vain. 

May  God  make  this  sacred  shrine  of  your  own  and 
your  people's  hopes  and  affections  the  place  of  his  abid- 
ing. May  you  be  spared  to  finish  what  to  His  glory 
you  have  so  worthily  begun.  To  this  House  of  the 
Lord  may  the  tribes  go  up,  even  the  tribes  of  your 
Israel.  Here  is  the  seat  of  judgment,  even  the  seat  of 
House  of  David.  May  God  long  spare  you  to  fill  it ! 
And  hither,  also,  may  there  never  cease  to  come  the 
burdened  hearts  that  hunger  for  the  Bread  of  Life, 
and  Rest  and  Peace,  and  may  they  never  fail  to  find 
them ! 


RELIGIOUS   ORDERS. 

No  more  remarkable  emancipation  from  earlier  prejudices 
has  taken  place  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  than  that 
which  has  dismissed  not  only  from  the  Church  of  England 
and  from  its  American  daughter,  hut  from  other  communions 
having  little  sympathy  with  either,  the  widespread  distrust 
and  dislike  which  for  more  than  two  centuries  have  prevailed 
everywhere  outside  the  Roman  Communion,  and  indeed  in 
some  quarters  within  it,  toward  what  are  called  ''religious  or- 
ders. ' '  The  monk  and  the  nun  have  been,  not  alone  with  sturdy 
Protestants,  but  with  many  devout  Church  people,  the  syno- 
nymes  for  fellowships  fruitful  only  of  corrupt  morals,  unreal 
devotion,  and  indolent  mendicancy.  The  disfigured  pages  of 
mediseval  ecclesiastical  history,  — disfigured  by  records  of  mo- 
nastic luxury,  cruelty,  and  vice,  which  are  witnessed  to  far 
more  impressively  and  conclusively  by  the  saintly  endeavors 
of  the  Port  Royalists  toward  reform  than  by  any  testimony 
submitted  by  the  commissioners  for  the  suppression  of  monas- 
tic houses,  under  the  authority  of  Henry  VIII., — records 
such  as  these  created  a  hostility  not  only  to  the  monastic 
idea,  but  to  everything  for  which  it  stood,  which  not  a 
great  while  ago  was  generally  regarded  as  radical  and 
inextinguishable. 

Two  influences  have  conspired  to  reverse  that  decision,  or 
if  not  to  reverse  it,  to  qualify  it.  The  first  has  been  a  more 
intelligent  discrimination  between  the  evils  and  the  excel- 
lences of  religious  orders,  and  the  second  the  pressure  of 
those  complex  exigencies  which  are  the  distinctive  character- 
istic of  our  modern  life. 

14 


210  Waymarks, 

In  regard  to  the  first  of  these,  there  will  always  be  those 
who  will  believe  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  celibate 
orders,  whether  of  men  or  women,  bound  together  for  devo- 
tional and  beneficent  purposes,  that  will  not  always  be  in 
danger  of  the  evils  which  at  the  Reformation  period  flaunted 
themselves  throughout  Christendom.  But  it  may  be  an- 
swered to  this  that  almost  as  much  as  this  may  be  said  of  any 
institution  in  human  society  ;  so  that  the  question  simply 
arises  whether  the  evil  tendency  in  such  orders  is  too  great 
to  be  restrained  or  overcome.  Still  further:  It  may  rightly 
be  urged  that,  until  it  is  demonstrated  that  religious  orders 
and  their  evils  are  inseparable,  to  dismiss  the  former  on  ac- 
count of  the  latter  is  simply  begging  the  question.  And  yet 
again :  It  might  rightly  be  argued  that  modern  society,  with 
its  unique  and  unprecedented  exigencies  would  seem  to  be 
creating  a  situation  and  with  it  a  demand  for  which  religious 
orders  furnish  the  only  appropriate  suppl3\  A  recent  writer^ 
has  shown  in  a  very  interesting  way  how  the  growth  of  mo- 
nastic houses  in  England,  with  their  accumulated  lands  and 
revenues,  was  partly  due  to  the  drift  towards  them  in  ages 
when  the  world  had  no  use  for  men  who  were  not  warriors,  of 
those  gentler  spirits,  refined,  shrinking,  lovers  of  letters,  of 
art,  of  religion,  above  all,  in  noisier  and  rougher  times  lovers 
of  peace  and  quiet,  to  whom  neither  the  camp  nor  the 
field  offered  anything  but  discomfort  and  humiliation.  Our 
age  seems  far  enough  from  theirs ;  but  there  are  gentler  souls 
of  both  sexes  to  whom  neither  the  fierce  competitions  of  our 
modern  life,  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  family  life,  — in  one 
word,  neither  marriage,  nor  business,  nor  politics,  nor  society 
in  its  technical  and  artificial  sense, — have  any  smallest 
attraction. 

For  these  the  office  of  a  Brother  or  Sister  or  Deaconess 
would  seem  to  offer  a  place  to  serve  God  and  to  feed  their  own 
souls  J  and  the  fact  that  religious  orders  of  both  sexes  are 

1  Rev.  Dr.  Jessup. 


Religious   Orders.  211 

already  at  work  in  the  Church,  with  recognized  usefulness 
and  wide  and  grateful  appreciation,  and  also  that  the  office  of 
a  Deaconess  seems  now,  for  the  first  time  since  primitive  days, 
to  be  finding  its  living  illustrations  in  other  communions  as 
well  as  in  the  Anglican  and  American  branches  of  the  Church, 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  already  a  question  popularly 
supposed  to  be  environed  with  insoluble  practical  difficulties 
had  reached  a  substantial  solution. 

The  sermon  which  follows  was  preached  in  Grace  Church, 
New  York,  on  Sunday,  Dec.  17,  1871.  Since  then  the  Dea- 
coness Home  and  Training-school  in  connection  with  that 
parish  have  been  successfuU}-  opened  and  set  in  operation 
by  the  Eev.  W.  E.   Huntington,  D.D. 


XII. 

WOMAN'S   PLACE   AND   WORK   IN  THE 
CHURCH. 

In  speaking  of  woman's  place  and  work  in  the  Church 
it  is  gratifying  to  remember  that  the  late  General  Con- 
vention of  our  Church,^  and  especially  the  House  of 
Bishops  in  its  Pastoral  Letter,  have  recognized  not  only 
the  general  expediency  but  also  the  Biblical  authority 
for  woman's  work,  and  for  the  definite  place  in  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Church  which  to-day  it  is  proposed  that 
woman  should  officially  hold.  "  In  the  revival  of  the 
Scriptural  diaconate  of  women,"  says  the  bishops'  pas- 
toral, "  we  feel  an  earnest  desire  that  prudence  and  good 
sense  may  preside  over  every  effort."  These  words  are 
alike  timely  and  wise.  We  have  all  heard  a  great  deal 
within  the  past  few  years  of  the  revival  of  sisterhoods 
and  other  similar  associations  of  women,  having  in  view 
a  more  unreserved  devotion  on  the  part  of  those  con- 
nected with  them  to  work  for  Christ,  His  Church,  and 
His  poor.  During  the  past  ten  or  fifteen  years  more 
than  thirty  such  associations  have  been  organized  in  our 
mother  Church  of  England,  and  some  seven  or  eight  in 
our  own  Church  in  the  United  States.  Their  growth 
thus  far  has  not  been  particularly  rapid ;  but  they  have 
multiplied  fast  enough  to  provoke  among  us  a  good  deal 

1  Of  A.D.  1871. 


Woman's  Place  and  Work  in  the   Church.       213 

of  inquiry,  and  in  some  quarters,  it  is  not  improbable,  a 
good  deal  of  alarm. 

On  the  one  hand,  it  has  been  felt  and  owned  that 
there  was  in  woman  an  immense  power  of  usefulness, 
which  the  Church  was  at  best  but  poorly  employing. 
The  records  of  Christian  work  for  the  past  twenty  years, 
both  abroad  and  among  ourselves,  have  shown  us  how 
much  one  such  woman  as  Miss  Marcli  could  do  in  Enff- 
land,  not  merely  among  her  own  sex,  but  among  such  a 
discouraging  class  of  men  as  the  English  navvies,  or  most 
inferior  day-laborers ;  and  what  more  than  one  other 
woman  here  could  do  in  gathering  bodies  of  a  hundred 
men  or  more  Sunday  after  Sunday  into  Bible  classes,  and 
so  rescuing  many  a  clever  mechanic  not  merely  from  in- 
temperance and  vice,  but  also  from  downright  unbelief. 
It  has  been  felt,  too,  that  earnest  women  working  thus, 
without  a  recognized  place  and  definite  commission, 
were  working  at  a  disadvantage.  It  has  been  felt  that 
that  advantage  which  belongs  to  a  clergyman  in  having 
a  distinctive  office,  garb,  and  status,  would,  if  it  could  be 
given  to  woman,  be  no  less  an  advantage  to  her.  And 
at  this  point  it  has  been  common  to  turn  to  the  sister  of 
charity  in  the  Roman  Church,  and  point  to  the  more 
obvious  advantages  which  are  undoubtedly  hers.  If  we 
want  a  sister  of  charity,  we  always  know  where  to  find 
her.  Her  home  is  not  in  a  private  dwelling,  from  which 
any  one  of  a  host  of  social  or  secular  engagements  may 
call  her  away  just  when  we  most  need  her,  but  in 
an  institution  ;  and  in  that  institution  her  duties  are 
such   that  if  in   an   emergency  we  need   her   services 


214  Way  marks. 

promptly,  we  can  promptly  and  surely  command  them. 
She  has  no  family  cares  to  detain  her ;  no  home  duties 
which  may  (and  as  in  the  case  of  all  home  duties  ought 
to)  claim  her  first  attention ;  and  when  she  passes 
in  and  out  of  the  dwellings  of  poverty  or  sickness, 
she  needs  no  escort,  and  is  safe  from  all  insult.  No 
most  degraded  man  ever  offered,  so  far  as  I  know,  an 
intentional  rudeness  to  a  sister  of  charity.  She  bears  a 
charmed  life,  and  blessings  attend  upon  her  steps. 

Why,  then,  it  has  been  very  naturally  and  persistently 
asked,  should  we  too  not  have  sisters  of  charity  ?  Shall 
we  be  guilty  of  the  weakness  of  despising  a  good  instru- 
mentality because  we  find  it  in  bad  company  ?  Fas  est 
ah  hoste  doceri.  Let  us  not  refuse  to  learn  wisdom  even 
from  our  adversaries.  If  there  are  earnest  and  capable 
and  godly  women  who  are  willing  to  give  themselves 
to  work  for  Christ  and  His  Church,  can  we  afford  to 
let  this  misapplied  power  run  to  waste  because  we  are 
afraid  of  being  thought  to  imitate  those  with  whom 
we  do  not  agree  ?  May  we  not  have  the  agency  of 
organized  women  without  the  evils  of  that  agency,  as 
we  see  them  at  work  elsewhere  ?  May  not  we,  too,  have 
sisters  of  charity  without  imitating  the  vices  of  Roman 
sisterhoods  ? 

These  questions  have  already  found  their  most  satis- 
factory answer,  as  many  among  us  believe,  in  those  or- 
ganizations of  sisterhoods  in  our  branch  of  the  Church 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  to  which  I  have  already 
referred.  It  would  be  idle  to  deny  that  a  great  deal  of 
good  work  has  during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  been 


Woman's  Place  and   Work  in  the   Church,      215 

done  by  means  of  deaconesses  or  sisterhoods  among  the 
poor,  the  neglected,  and  the  outcast,  which  otherwise 
would  never  have  been  done  at  all ;  and  it  is  equally  un- 
deniable that  in  the  doing  of  that  work  many  women  of 
earnest  nature  and  sympathetic  spirit  and  abundant  en- 
ergy have  found  a  sphere  of  activity  and  a  definite  rule 
of  life  which  have  been  to  them  at  once  a  help,  a  privi- 
lege, and  a  blessing. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  we  may  not  overlook 
the  fact  that  the  revival  and  multiplication  of  religious 
orders  of  women  among  us  has  in  certain  quarters  ex- 
cited not  a  little  alarm  and  provoked  not  a  little  sus- 
picion. Such  organizations  are  exclusively  associated 
in  the  minds  of  many  persons  with  thoughts  of  an  alien 
and  hostile  communion,  —  a  communion  which  has  been 
(in  this  country,  at  any  rate)  until  lately  the  only  reli- 
gious body  which  has  employed  them ;  and  when  such 
persons  have  turned  to  watch  the  operations  of  religious 
orders  of  women,  it  has  happened,  unfortunately,  that 
they  have  seen  in  them  in  some  instances  more  eager- 
ness to  imitate  Latin  than  Scriptural  models,  and  more 
ardor  to  introduce  among  us  practices  that  are  Roman 
or  mediaeval  than  primitive  and  Apostolic.  That  earnest 
minds  looking  on  should  be  impatient  of  such  unwisdom 
we  cannot  greatly  wonder  ;  nay,  more,  that  they  should 
condemn  those  organizations  in  which  such  practices, 
however  covertly,  have  a  place,  is  not  greatly  surprising 
either.  A  system  will  always  be  judged  —  in  the  popular 
judgment,  at  least  —  as  much  by  its  accidents  as  its 
essence.     If  barnacles  gather  on  a  ship's  bottom,  the 


216  Waymarks, 

passengers  will  condemn  her  sailing  qualities  quite  as 
much  as  if  her  sluggishness  were  due  to  lier  model,  and 
not  to  the  pestiferous  insects  who  have  built  their  cells 
upon  her  keel.  The  alarm  which  has  been  awakened  in 
some  minds  is  not  therefore  surprising,  even  though  it 
is  not  altogether  intelligent ;  and  it  certainly  has  not 
been  diminished  by  the  history  of  certain  sisterhoods  in 
our  mother  Church,  which  have  practically  asserted  their 
independence  of  all  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  in  some 
instances  denied  the  right  of  inspection  to  the  bishops  of 
those  dioceses  in  which  they  were  situated.  If  we  cannot 
have  woman's  commissioned  help  without  such  serious 
evils,  it  is  certainly  a  grave  question  whether  it  is  worth 
while  to  have  it  at  all. 

But  suppose  those  evils  are  not  inherent  in  the 
system,  — is  then  the  question  which  remains  merely  one 
of  expediency  ;  and  in  deciding  it  have  we  no  other  lights 
than  those  of  the  experience  of  the  past  and  of  the 
present,  about  which  men  may  easily  and  very  widely 
differ  ?  If  this  were  the  position  of  this  question  to-day, 
I  think  I  should  still  be  able  to  show  you  many  reasons 
why  the  Church  might  wisely  and  rightly  revive  such  an 
agency  among  ourselves,  and  why  we  might  well  employ 
it.  But  the  ground  on  which  the  friends  of  the  present 
movement  for  commissioning  godly  women  for  work  in 
Christ's  Church,  either  under  the  name  of  "  sisters  "  or 
some  other,  may  plant  themselves  is,  we  venture  to 
believe,  a  much  stronger  one,  and  finds  its  best  defence 
in  the  words  of  Holy  Scripture  itself.  Those  words  of 
the  late  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  House  of  Bishops  which 


Woman's  Place  and   Work  in  the   Church.       217 

speak  of  "  the  revival  of  the  Scriptural  Diaconate  of 
women"  are,  we  may  be  sure,  words  which  were  well 
weighed,  and  discriminatingly  and  deliberately  uttered. 
They  imply  that  there  is  in  Holy  Scripture  unmistak- 
able evidence  of  the  official  position  and  work  of  women 
in  the  Apostolic  Church,  and  that  our  modern  proposal 
to  set  her  apart  for  Christ's  service  and  to  give  to  her  a 
definite  commission  and  a  recognized  status  is  not 
merely  modern,  but  in  truth  the  revival  of  something 
which  is  alike  ancient  and  primitive  and  Scriptural. 
And  when  we  turn  to  the  New  Testament  itself  we  find 
it  so.  For  example,  near  the  close  of  that  loving  and 
beautiful  letter  of  Saint  Paul's  to  the  Church  at  Philippi 
we  read  these  touching  words  :  "  And  I  entreat  thee 
also,  true  yoke-fellow,  help  those  ivomen  which  have 
labored  with  me  in  the  gospel^  with  Clement  also,  and 
with  other  my  fellow-laborers,  whose  names  are  in  the 
book  of  life."  ^  Here  women  are  spoken  of  as  not  only 
fellow-laborers,  but  as  "  fellow-laborers  in  the  gospel," 
and  their  mention  is  coupled  with  that  of  the  name  of 
one  who  was  eminent  in  the  ministry  of  Christ.  It 
would  be  very  hard  to  believe,  even  if  the  New  Testament 
told  us  nothing  more  of  work  for  Christ  as  done  by 
Christian  women,  that  these  were  simply  estimable 
mothers  or  daughters  of  families  who  gave  to  the  found- 
ing of  the  infant  Church  at  Philippi  merely  such 
snatches  of  time  as  they  were  able  to  rescue  from  other 
engagements.  The  very  grouping  of  the  verse  seems 
to  point  to  a  class  who  had  a  definite  place  in  the  great 

1  Philippiaus  iv.  3. 


218  Waymarks, 

work  of  proclaiming  Christ  to  Heathendom,  and  who 
had  done  their  work  lovingly  and  well. 

And,  when  we  turn  from  this  same  Apostle's  letter 
to  the  Philippians  to  that  other  which  he  wrote  to  the 
Christians  in  Rome,  we  find,  not  only  such  greetings  as 
these,  "  Salute  Tryphena  and  Tryphosa,  who  labor  in 
the  Lord.  Salute  the  beloved  Persis,  who  labored 
much  in  the  Lord,"  ^  but  also  this  special  reference  to 
another  fellow-laborer  :  "  I  commend  to  you  Phebe,  our 
sister,  which  is  a  servant  of  the  Qhurcli  which  is  at 
Cenchrea."  ^  Here  is  certainly  one  woman  who  has  a 
definite  official  position,  for  she  is  spoken  of,  not 
merely  in  general  terms,  as  "  a  servant  of  Christ,"  but 
distinctively  as  "  a  servant  of  the  Church."  And  the 
force  of  that  language  is  certainly  not  weakened  when, 
turning  from  our  English  version  to  the  Greek  we  find 
that  the  word  which  is  translated  servant  is  hiaKovov^ 
the  plain  rendering  of  which,  according  to  its  connection, 
would  be  deacon  or  deaconess  ;  so  that  the  passage,  if 
properly  translated,  would  read,  "  I  commend  to  you 
Phebe,  our  sister,  who  is  deaconess  of  the  church  in 
Cenchrea,"  — even  as  we  should  say  to-day,  "  our  brother 
John  Paul,  who  is  pastor,  or  assistant,  of  the  church  in 
such  a  place." 

A  still  more  striking  and  most  conclusive  passage, 
however,  is  that  which  is  found  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Saint  Paul's  first  letter  to  Timothy.  In  that  epistle  the 
Apostle  is  giving  certain  specific  directions  as  to  what  we 
may  call  the  domestic  life  of  the  clergy.     He  enjoins 

1  Homans  xvi.  12.  ^  Romans  xvi.  1. 


Woman  s  Place  and  Work  in  the   Church.       219 

that  the  bishops  and  elders  be  vigilant,  sober,  hospitable, 
no  brawlers,  not  covetous,  nor  quarrelsome;  that  the 
deacons  be  grave,  not  double-tongued,  not  given  to  much 
wine  ;  and  then  he  turns  to  declare  what,  as  our  version 
has  it,  their  wives  must  be.  Now,  it  has  probably  struck 
many  a  thoughtful  reader  that  it  is  somewhat  strange,  to 
say  the  least,  that  the  Apostle  should  be  thus  particular 
in  declaring  what  should  be  the  characteristics  of  the 
wives  of  deacons,  when  he  says  nothing  as  to  what  ought 
to  characterize  the  wives  of  elders,  or  presbyters,  or 
bishops.  These  latter,  as  occupying  a  more  conspicuous 
position,  and  as  being  the  companions  of  those  of  the 
clergy  holding  higher  rank,  would  certainly  seem  most 
to  have  needed  instruction  as  to  what  was  required  of 
them  in  the  marriage  relation.  And  yet,  if  our  version 
is  to  be  believed,  the  Apostle  has  nothing  to  say  to  the 
wife  of  a  bishop  or  a  presbyter,  and  is  only  very  par- 
ticular as  to  what  traits  a  Christian  woman  should 
exhibit  when  he  comes  to  speak  to  the  wife  of  a  deacon ! 
Our  perplexity  disappears  entirely,  however,  when  we 
come  to  learn,  as  a  copy  of  the  Greek  Testament  shows 
us,  that  the  Apostle  is  not  speaking  of  deacon's  wives 
at  all,  but  of  deaconesses,  or,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  of 
"women-deacons."  He  had  said  in  a  previous  verse 
"  let  the  deacons  "  —  that  is,  the  men-deacons  —  "  be 
grave  "  and  sober,  and  the  like  ;  and  then  he  proceeds  to 
add,  "  Even  so  must  women "  of  that  order,  that  is, 
"  women-deacons,"  or,  as  we  should  say  "  deaconesses,^'' 
be  grave,  not  slanderers,  sober  and  faithful.  Such  lan- 
guage ^  which  gives   such  unequivocal   recognition  to  a 


220  Waymarks, 

religious  order  of  women  as  already  existing  in  the 
Church,  seems  conclusive,  and  makes  us  own  the  force 
of  the  remark  lately  made  by  an  eminent  Biblical 
scholar  of  our  mother  Church  to  the  effect  that  "  if  the 
testimony  borne  in  these  two  passages  to  a  ministry  of 
women  in  Apostolic  times  had  not  been  blotted  out  of 
our  English  Bibles  [by  incorrect  translations]  attention 
would  probably  have  been  directed  to  the  subject  at  an 
earlier  date,  and  our  English  Church  would  not  have 
remained  so  long  maimed  in  one  of  her  hands. ^^  ^ 

And  now  that  we  have  these  passages  in  a  truer  guise, 
what  shall  we  do  in  regard  to  that  agency  for  the  em- 
ployment of  which  they  give  us  such  clear  and  sufficient 
authority  ?  Surely  there  never  was  a  time  when  the 
cause  of  Christ  more  urgently  needed  every  available 
agency  for  doing  the  work  which  the  Master  has  given 
it  to  do  in  the  world.  Surely,  too,  there  are  no  gifts 
which  the  Church  more  urgently  needs  to  utilize  than 
those  winning,  persuasive,  and  sympathetic  gifts  with 
which  the  Creator  has  supremely  endowed  woman. 
There  appeared  the  other  day  a  letter  written  by  the  elo- 
quent, if  somewhat  erratic  preacher  who  speaks  from 
the  platform  of  what  is  known  as  Plymouth  Church,  in 
which  this  fact  is  made  the  ground  of  an  argument  for 
admitting  woman  to  the  pulpit.  Its  substance  was  that 
no  one  can  at  once  inculcate  and  illustrate  that  spirit  of 
love  which  breathes  through  the  New  Testament  as  can 
a  woman.  And  while,  as  it  certainly  must  seem  to  a 
candid  criticism,  that  same  New  Testament  is  clearly 

1  J.  B.  Lightfoot,  D.  D.,  "  A  Revision  of  the  New  Testament/'  p.  114. 


Woman's  Place  and  Work  in  the  Church.       221 

enough  against  any  usurpation  of  the  office  of  teaching 
in  the  congregation  by  woman,  it  is  as  clearly  a  fact  that 
hers  is  a  delicacy  and  tenderness  of  approach,  and  an 
intuitive  wisdom  of  utterance  that  oftenest  fit  her  most 
of  all  to  deal  with  those  whose  ignorance,  or  vice,  or 
prejudice  make  them  hardest  to  reach  and  win. 

Of  course,  as  will  be  quickly  urged  in  many  quarters, 
it  does  not  require  that  a  woman  should  take  upon  her  a 
ministerial  office,  nor  join  a  community,  nor  array 
herself  in  a  peculiar  and  distinctive  habit,  in  order  to 
work  for  her  Master.  And  we  ought  to  be  ready,  not 
merely  to  admit  this,  but  we  need  to  recognize  the  fur- 
ther fact  that,  not  only  are  there  many  devout  and 
earnest  women  who  can  do  the  Master's  work  standing 
alone,  and  acting  outside  of  any  organization,  but  also 
that  there  are  many  women  who  can  work  in  this  way 
best  of  all.  They  can  be  a  law  unto  themselves,  and  to 
associate  them  with  others  would  only  be  to  hamper  and 
embarrass  them.  1  recall  one  such  noble  woman  at 
this  moment,  a  lady  of  utmost  refinement  and  of  hon- 
orable lineage,  whose  labors  in  jails  and  almshouses  in 
our  great  metropolis  have  made  a  name  long  distin- 
guished in  the  annals  of  our  country  more  illustrious 
than  ever  upon  the  loftier  bede-roll  of  Christian  philan- 
thropy. All  honor  to  such  workers,  and  to  the  work 
which  they  have  so  faithfully  done ! 

But  when  we  have  fully  recognized  the  value  of 
individual  and  disassociated  services  the  fact  still 
remains  that  we  want,  for  a  large  class  of  persons  in 
the   Church,   the    manifold    advantages   of    a    definite 


222  Waymarks. 

organization  and  a  specific  commission.  How  many 
earnest  and  warm-hearted  women  are  there  in  our  land 
who  have  abundant  leisure,  who  are  without  domestic 
ties,  and  who  are  fitted  by  training  and  inclination  for  a 
definite  post  of  service  in  the  Master's  Kingdom !  As  it 
is,  perhaps  they  do  try  to  do  something,  but  they  are 
pulled  many  ways  by  many  conflicting  engagements,  and 
they  have  no  definite  place.  If  a  Christian  pastor  needs 
their  help,  he  cannot  easily  find  them,  and  if  they,  as  will- 
ing disciples  of  the  Divine  Friend  of  Martha  and  Mary, 
wish  to  minister  to  Him  in  the  persons  of  His  sick  and 
poor,  they  very  often  are  not  allowed  to  do  it.  A  young 
girl  wishes  merely  to  teach  a  class  in  Sunday-school,  or 
a  generous  and  sympathetic  woman  wishes  to  go  to  the 
bedside  of  some  sick  sufferer.  But  very  often  neither 
of  them  can  do  as  they  would  without  a  sneer  at  their 
perhaps  inconvenient  enthusiasm,  or  without  something 
worse  than  a  sneer  from  the  lips  of  a  selfish  man,  who, 
though  neither  husband  nor  son,  may  happen  to  find 
them  absent  on  such  an  errand  when  in  the  interests  of 
his  personal  comfort  they  are  "  wanted."  Surely  for 
any  Christian  woman  whose  heart  is  warm  with  a  desire 
to  do  something  for  her  Master,  and  who  is  bound  by  no 
positive  domestic  obligations,  to  be  free  from  such 
annoyance  and  embarrassment  in  her  work  would  be  an 
immense  boon. 

Why  should  we  not  give  her  that  boon  ?  It  is  pos- 
sible for  woman  to  have  a  definite  place  whether  as 
an  appointed  deaconess  or  as  a  recognized  sister  with- 
out incurring  either  the  dangers  of  monasticism  or  the 


Woman's  Place  and   Work  in  the  Church.       223 

perils  of  enforced  vows,  and  the  Church  of  our  affec- 
tions is  wise  in  having  recognized  the  importance  of 
a  primitive  and  Scriptural  agency,  and  in  having 
resolved  to  restore  it  to  its  original  simplicity  and  use- 
fulness, by  purging  it  from  mediaeval  errors.  The  narrow 
limits  of  these  pages  forbid  any  attempt  to  portray  a 
sisterhood  or  a  deaconesses'  institution,  as  one  would 
fain  see  them  organized  and  at  work  among  ourselves. 
They  have  undoubtedly  —  as  what  earthly  agency  has 
not  ?  —  their  dangers  ;  but  may  we  not  venture  to  believe 
that  those  dangers  can  largely,  if  not  wholly,  be  avoided  ? 
And  if  they  can,  and  if  God  has  a  place,  an  office, 
a  definite  post  and  calling  in  His  Church  for  woman, 
may  it  not  be  well  for  those  who  share  the  sex  of  the 
Virgin  Mother,  of  the  Magdalene,  and  of  Salome  to  put  to 
themselves  the  question,  "  May  not  I  be  called  to  such  a 
work  as  this  ?  Have  not  I  that  freedom  from  domestic 
ties,  that  love  for  the  Master,  and  that  aptitude  for 
usefulness  in  His  Church,  which,  when  His  cause 
languishes  in  the  world  for  want  of  helpers,  and  when 
His  truth  stands  still  for  lack  of  eager  feet  to  bear  it 
forth  to  men,  will  lead  me  gladly  to  exclaim,  while 
looking  up  to  Him  for  strength  to  do  His  will, '  Lord ! 
here  am  I  !   send  me  '  ?  '^ 


CHURCH   SCHOOLS   IN  AMERICA. 

That  remarkable  man  who  impressed  himself  in  so  many 
ways  upon  our  American  Church  life,  Dr.  William  A.  Muhl- 
enberg, became  earliest  known  to  many  as  the  founder  of  a 
Church  school  at  College  Point,  L.  I., — the  first  of  its 
kind,  at  any  rate  of  any  marked  influence,  in  this  country. 

From  that  school  went  forth  into  the  Church  and  into 
secular  pursuits  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  useful  men  of 
the  first  half  of  this  century.  Bishops  and  other  clergy, 
lawyers,  doctors,  and  men  of  affairs  were  there  trained  and 
moulded  by  an  influence  which  left  enduringly  upon  them 
the  mark  of  a  strong,   noble,   and  unique  personality. 

In  the  year  1855  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  passed 
an  act  to  incorporate  St.  Paul's  School.  If  not  directly, 
yet  by  no  very  remote  sequence  of  influences,  St.  Paul's 
School  may  be  said  to  have  had  its  origin  in  those  influences 
set  in  operation  by  the  earlier  school  at  College  Point.  A 
layman  of  rare  devotion  and  large  foresight,  ^  whose  services 
to  the  Church  of  his  adoption  in  Massachusetts  can  never  be 
forgotten,  found  himself  moved  —  partly  by  the  diflicult}^  of 
finding  just  such  a  school  as  he  desired  for  his  own  children, 
and  no  less  by  his  sense  of  what  was  demanded  for  the  best 
nurture  of  New  England  boys  —  to  set  apart  certain  land  and 
buildings  near  Concord,  N.  H.,  for  the  purpose  of  founding 
a  school  to  be  administered  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
of  the  Episcopal  Church.  This  first  foundation  w^as  followed 
in  subsequent  years  by  other  generous  benefactions  from  the 
same  hand;  and  a  school  which  began  with  three  pupils  has 

1  Dr.  George  Cheyne  Shattuck. 


Church  Schools  in  America,  225 

grown  to  number  four  hundred,  with  applications,  for  many- 
years  continuously,  far  beyond  its  repeatedly  enlarged  capac- 
ity. Its  history  as  a  school  has  been  the  history,  as  thus  in- 
dicated, of  exceptional  wisdom,  courage,  and  generosity  on 
the  part  of  its  founder,  and,  it  may  be  added,  of  singular  and 
steadfast  devotion  on  the  part  of  those  who,  whether  as  trus- 
tees or  instructors,  have  had  to  do  with  its  remarkable  growth 
and  prosperity.  But  there  is  no  one  of  these  who  will  not 
own  that  that  growth  and  prosperity  have  been  most  of  all 
due  to  the  remarkable  man,i  who  from  the  day  when,  in 
April,  1855,  he  entered  upon  his  duties  as  its  rector,  has 
been  the  fans  et  origo  of  its  best  and  most  gracious  life. 
Without  previous  experience  of  a  kind  such  as  would  seem  to 
have  been  demanded  by  such  an  emergency,  he  showed  him- 
self from  the  outset  to  be  possessed  of  that  ''divine  gift  of 
order,''  that  natural  aptitude  for  rulership,  that  rare  and 
singular  power  of  relating  himself  directly  and  intimately 
with  the  most  dissimilar  and  perplexing  phases  of  boyish 
character,  and  of  winning  an  influence  over  all  who  came  in 
contact  with  him,  of  which,  save  in  such  a  case  as  that  of 
Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  there  have  been  in  the  whole  history  of 
modern  school  life  few,  if  any,  instances. 

One  may  not  speak  of  the  living  in  terms  which  would  not 
the  less  give  pain  because  to  the  universal  judgment  they 
are  so  true ;  but  no  one  who  knows  the  story  of  the  growth 
of  that  Church  in  New  England  of  which  the  first  rector  of 
St.  Paul's  School  will  always  be  regarded  as  so  bright  an 
an  ornament  will  hesitate  to  own  that  that  school,  in  the 
persons  of  its  hundreds  of  graduates  scattered  not  only  all 
over  New  England,  but  all  over  the  land,  has  been  among 
the  most  potent  influences  in  promoting  that  growth. 

The  sermon  here  given  was  preached  on  June  5,  1888,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  consecration  of  the  noble  chapel  for  the 
school,  erected  mainly  by  the  gifts  of  its  graduates. 

i  Eev.  Henry  A.  Coit,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
15 


XIII. 

SERMON. 

And  it  came  to  pass  .  .  .  ere  the  lamp  of  God  went  out  in  the 
temple  of  the  Lord,  where  the  ark  of  God  was,  and  Sa7nuel 
was  laid  down  to  sleep ^  that  the  Lord  called  Samuel,  and 
he  answered,  Here  am  I.  —  1  Samuel  iii.  2-4. 

"  The  temple  of  the  Lord  "  here  spoken  of  was  not  so 
much  a  temple  as  a  tabernacle ;  but  though  only  a  tent 
in  Shiloh,  it  was  the  sanctuary  of  Israel,  and  the  seat  of 
its  ruler  or  judge.  From  hence,  under  the  guidance  of 
Eli,  had  gone  forth  the  voice  of  worship  and  the  tones 
of  law.  It  was  the  centre  of  the  rule  of  the  judges ;  and 
Hebrew  history,  lost  to  view  after  the  death  of  Samson, 
reappears  with  Eli,  who  "  sat  within  the  tabernacle  gate 
and  judged  Israel "  for  wellnigh  forty  years. 

But  the  days  of  his  rule  were  about  to  end  ;  a  turning- 
point  in  the  nation's  life  had  come  at  length ;  and  that 
inevitable  law  by  which 

"  The  old  order  changeth  ever, 
Giving  place  to  new," 

was  to  find  in  the  history  of  the  chosen  people  a  sudden 
and  tragic  fulfilment.  The  hand  of  Eli  had  grown 
weak  ;  his  grasp  of  the  sceptre  was  at  once  feeble  and 
ineffectual ;  and  even  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  in  the  persons  of  his  own  sons,  crime  and 


Church  Schools  in  America.  227 

lawlessness  ran  riot  unrebuked.  "Hophni  and  Pliinehas, 
the  sons  of  Eli,  are,  for  students  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
characters,"  which  have  been  fitly  described  as  "  '  of 
great  and  instructive  wickedness.'  They  are  the  true 
exemplars  of  the  grasping  and  worldly  clergy  of  all  ages. 
It  was  the  sacrificial  feasts  that  gave  occasion  for  their 
rapacity.  It  was  the  dances  and  assemblies  of  women 
in  the  vineyards  and  before  the  sacred  tent  that  gave  oc- 
casion for  their  debaucheries.  .  .  .  But  the  coarseness 
of  their  vices  does  not  make  the  moral  less  pointed  for 
all  times.  The  three-pronged  [instead  of  the  single- 
pronged]  fork  which  fishes  up  the  seething  flesh  is  the 
earliest  type  of  grasping  at  pluralities  and  church-pre- 
ferments by  base  means  ;  the  profligacy  at  the  open  door 
of  the  temple  is  the  type  of  many  a  scandal  brought  on 
the  Christian  Church  by  the  selfishness  or  sensuality  of 
its  ministers."  ^  No  wonder  that  the  wrath  of  God 
could  not  long  endure  them,  and  that  Providential 
judgments,  swift  and  sharp,  brought  an  administration 
at  once  so  weak  and  so  corrupt  to  an  end. 

But  from  our  modern  standpoint  it  is  scarcely  less  a 
wonder  that  it  was  not  superseded  by  a  rule  at  once  of 
alien  origin  and  of  hostile  spirit.  When  the  student  of 
history  reads  of  ecclesiastical  corruption,  or  of  power, 
whether  secular  or  spiritual,  as  abused  in  ecclesiastical 
hands,  it  is  the  fashion  to  find  in  the  incident  an  argu- 
ment for  disowning  all  ecclesiastical  authority,  and  for 
distrusting  all  ecclesiastical  power.  The  government  of 
Eli  and  of  Eli's  time,  men  say,  so  far  as  it  was  a  govern- 

J  History  of  the  Jewish  Churcli,  Stanley,  part  1,  p.  418. 


228  Waymarks. 

ment,  was  a  "  government  of  the  Church ;  and  Eli,  so 
far  as  he  was  the  product  of  any  institution,  was  the 
product  of  the  Church.  Well,  if  you  Churchmen  want 
him  as  an  illustration  of  the  fruits  of  your  system,  you 
are  welcome  to  him.  He  was  not  perhaps  a  wicked  old 
man,  but  he  was  a  very  weak  one  ;  and  he  is  a  fair  type 
of  that  system  which  trains  a  man  in  rites  and  cere- 
monies, in  creeds  and  formularies,  but  leaves  him  with 
a  blunted  moral  sense,  a  contracted  intellect,  and  a  sel- 
fish heart.  Plainly  enough,  whatever  else  his  history 
teaches  us,  it  teaches  us  that  whenever  a  nation  wishes 
to  rear  men  and  not  tools,  leaders  and  not  formalists,  it 
must  rear  them  elsewhere  than  within  the  precincts  of 
the  Church.  Plainly  enough,  wherever  else  we  are  to 
look  for  prophets  and  reformers  in  a  corrupt  and  law- 
less age,  we  are  not  to  look  for  them  in  the  chambers  of 
the  sanctuary." 

And  yet  God  does  not  seem  to  have  thought  so.  In 
that  crisis  of  Israel's  history  —  when  the  power  of  the 
judge  broke  down  and  self-will  ran  riot  in  the  land, 
when  corruption  nestled  at  the  altar  and  stalked  abroad 
in  priestly  office  and  apparel  —  a  child's  voice  is  heard 
out  of  the  darkness,  out  of  the  despair,  out  of  the  shame, 
savino;,  "  Lord,  here  am  I.''  We  turn  to  look  for  its 
source,  and  not  out  of  the  wilderness,  the  hermit's  cave, 
or  the  far-country,  but  right  there  in  the  temple  it  is 
heard  ;  and  the  child  Samuel,  dedicated  in  the  temple, 
reared  in  the  temple,  dwelling  in  the  temple,  is  the 
speaker.  Nay,  the  child  Samuel  it  is,  the  youth  Samuel, 
the  man  Samuel,  who,  reared  and  nurtured  thus,  comes 


Church  Schools  in  America.  229 

forth  from  out  his  chamber  in  the  sanctuary,  where  the 
voice  of  God  has  found  and  spoken  to  him,  and  lifts 
the  Israel  of  his  time  out  of  its  sin  and  shame  into 
the  peace  and  order  of  a  reverent,  loyal,  law-abiding 
people.  If  ever  there  was  a  reformer,  Samuel  was  a 
reformer  ;  if  ever  there  was  a  fearless  ruler,  a  righteous 
law-giver,  a  stainless  man,  Samuel  was  that  man.  In  all 
Hebrew  literature,  ay,  or  in  any  other  literature,  find  if 
you  can  anything  finer  in  its  way  than  that  calm  challenge 
with  which,  at  the  last,  he  lays  down  the  sceptre  of  his 
authority,  —  "  Behold,  here  I  am,  old  and  gray-headed  ; 
and  I  have  walked  before  you  from  my  childhood  unto 
tliis  day.  Witness  against  me  before  the  Lord,  and  be- 
fore His  anointed :  whom  have  I  defrauded  ?  whom 
have  I  oppressed  ?  or  of  whose  hand  have  I  received  any 
bribe  to  blind  mine  eyes  therewith  ? "  ^  And  such  a 
ruler,  such  a  judge,  such  a  prophet,  was  the  product 
only,  solely,  absolutely,  of  the  temple.  In  the  temple  he 
had  learned  to  hearken  and  to  wait ;  in  the  temple. he 
had  been  taught  to  trust  and  to  obey  ;  and  when  at 
length  in  the  temple  the  voice  of  God  finds  him  and 
speaks  to  him,  it  is  a  priest  of  the  temple  who  recognizes 
its  august  tones,  and  interprets  them  to  his  childish 
soul. 

The  lesson  is,  I  venture  to  think,  not  inappropriate 
to  this  place  and  this  occasion.  Both  the  place  and 
the  occasion  are  unique.  It  is  the  occasion  of  a  dedi- 
cation or  consecration,  and  the  consecration  of  the 
chapel  of  an  institution  of  learning.     Now,  in    neither 

1  1  Samuel  xii.  2,  3. 


230  Way  marks. 

of  these  two  things,  taken  by  themselves,  is  there  any- 
thing at  all  remarkable.  There  are  schools  and  col- 
leges all  over  the  land,  and  there  are,  I  presmne, 
chapels  connected  with  most  of  them ;  but  in  the  case 
of  no  one  of  them  all,  I  venture  to  affirm,  is  there  an 
instance  in  which  the  chapel  is  so  plainly  and  obviously 
the  one  conspicuous  figure,  the  costliest  fabric,  the  dom- 
inant  centre  of  the  whole.  There  are,  I  rejoice  to  know, 
not  a  few  centres  of  Christian  nurture  where  Christian 
teaching  is  the  rule,  and  where  Christian  worship  is  not 
unfitly  housed  ;  but  it  has  been  reserved  for  this  school, 
and  for  the  grateful  generosity  of  those  who  were  once 
its  pupils,  to  rear  a  sanctuary  here  which  among  build- 
ings of  its  kind  is  —  at  any  rate,  in  our  own  land  — 
foremost,  if  not  pre-eminent. 

It  is  this  fact,  I  say,  which  makes  this  occasion  unique. 
The  munificence  of  individual  or  associated  generosity  to 
our  American  institutions  of  learning  is  in  no  wise 
unusual,  nor  is  its  expression  very  diverse.  We  have 
wealth  rearing  very  splendid  dormitories,  and  very 
stately  dining-halls,  and  very  complete  and  amply 
equipped  laboratories.  Just  now,  I  believe  that  wealth 
is  chiefly  devoting  itself,  in  most  of  our  schools  and 
colleges,  in  fit  submission  to  the  ruling  voice  of  the  hour, 
to  the  erection  of  gymnasia  and  swimming-baths ;  and 
I  am  told  that  the  provisions  in  this  latter  regard  of 
some  of  our  great  universities  are  likely,  before  long,  to 
rival  those  of  Roman  magnificence  in  days  when  Dio- 
cletian reared  those  splendid  structures  whose  ruins  still 
survive.     In  this  view,  it  must  be  owned,  I  think,  that 


Church  Schools  in  America,  231 

the  visible  structures  which  distinguish  our  institutions 
of  learning  have  a  profound  significance.  They  re- 
veal the  nature  of  that  faith  which  has  reared  them. 
If  a  man  believes  that  character  is  to  be  formed  by 
merely  physical  and  intellectual  culture ;  that  the  train- 
ing of  the  hand,  or  the  eye,  or  the  brain  is  to  make  an 
honest  man,  a  loyal  citizen,  a  lover  of  humanity,  —  he 
will  be  apt  to  provide  buildings  meet  for  such  training, 
and  no  more.  If  he  does  not  believe  that  in  the  nurture 
of  youth  the  most  august  fact  is  God,  and  that  the  most 
solemn  word  is  duty,  he  will  not  greatly  care  whether  a 
boy  is  taught  to  recognize  the  one  or  to  own  the  other. 
And  this  is,  in  truth,  what  we  largely  see.  There  could 
be  no  more  impressive  contrast  between  the  earlier  days 
of  our  republic  in  this  regard  than  the  present.  No 
American  can  find  himself  within  the  boundaries  of  this 
commonwealth,  I  fancy,  without  recalling  the  figure  of 
that  greatest  of  orators,  if  not  of  statesmen,  whose 
nativity  within  its  borders  lends  to  New  Hampshire  a 
chief  distinction.  Daniel  Webster  had,  doubtless,  not 
only  great  gifts,  but  great  faults.  And  yet  no  one  can 
read  the  story  of  his  life  without  seeing  how  profoundly 
it  is  stamped,  from  its  beginning  to  its  end,  with  the  im- 
press of  a  strong,  definite,  and  devout  Christian  nurture. 
Said  Mr.  Bell,  of  his  native  State,  to  Webster  on  the 
morning  when  the  latter  made  his  great  reply  to  Hayne, 
"It  is  a  critical  moment;  and  it  is  high  time  that 
the  people  of  this  country  should  know  what  the  Ameri- 
can Constitution  is."  Said  Webster  in  reply,  "Then, 
by  the  blessing  of  Heaven,  they  shall  learn,  tliis  day, 


232  Waymarks. 

before  the  sun  goes  down,  what  I  understand  it  to  be."  ^ 
"  By  the  blessing  of  Heaven."  The  words  were  not 
lightly  spoken.  They  were  the  language  of  a  man 
whose  childhood  had  taught  him  dependence  on  God, 
and  whose  manhood  never  forgot  it.  Do  not  mistake 
my  meaning.  I  am  no  stickler  for  cant  phrases  or  for 
empty  formalisms.  But  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me 
that  in  our  modern  statesmanship  there  is  a  barrenness 
of  reverence  for  the  Unseen,  a  visible  impatience  often 
of  all  recognition  of  those  mightiest  forces  that  govern 
the  universe,  that  bodes  no  good  for  our  future.  Is  it 
hard  to  discern  its  source  ?  I  make  every  allowance  for 
the  growth  of  a  triumphant  materialism,  for  the  incur- 
sion of  alien  faiths  and  manners,  for  the  debilitating 
effects  of  wealth  and  luxury.  But  behind  these  there  is 
another  cause,  more  potent,  as  I  am  persuaded,  than  all 
the  rest.  It  is  a  nurture  which,  in  the  schoolroom  and 
in  the  college,  largely  leaves  God  out  of  the  account, 
which  trains  body  and  brain  alone,  and  which,  as  it  has 
come  to  be  doubtful  whether  there  is  anything  more  or 
higher  to  be  trained,  has  no  warning  for  the  conscience, 
no  discipline  for  the  affections,  and,  above  all,  no  word 
of  inspiration  for  the  soul. 

And  so  I  think  we  may  well  bless  God  for  this  day, 
for  this  school,  and  most  of  all  for  this  chapel.  In 
his  admirable  volume  on  the  ''  Rise  and  Constitution 
of  Universities,"  a  work  which  I  would  commend  to  the 
thoughtful  attention  of  every  scholar.  Professor  Laurie, 
of  Edinburgh,  discusses  the  influence  of  Christianity  on 

1  Lodge's  Daniel  Webster,  pp.  178,  179. 


Church  Schools  in  Ainerica.  233 

education,  and  the  rise  of  Christian  schools.  Contrast- 
ing them  with  those  which  had  preceded  them,  he 
observes  :  — 

'^Had  Christianity  assumed  a  purely  negative  attitude  to 
the  Romano-Hellenic  life  and  culture,  and  done  no  more,  it 
would  have  to  be  classed  among  the  destructive  powers  of 
barbarism.  But  it  had  its  positive  side;  it  had  in  it  a 
power  to  build  up  as  well  as  to  throw  down.  It  introduced 
more  than  one  new  idea  into  the  life  of  our  race.  It  broad- 
ened and  deepened  the  sentiment  of  the  common  brotherhood 
of  man,  by  giving  to  human  sj^mpathy  and  love  a  divine 
sanction.  But,  most  important  of  all,  it  fortified  the  sense 
of  personality.  The  individual  was  now  not  only  a  free, 
thinking  spirit,  which  had  its  personal  life  and  personal 
rights;  this  spirit,  the  true  person  of  each  individual,  was 
now  seen  to  be  rooted  in  God,  to  be  of  infinite  importance 
even  in  His  eyes.  Thus,  by  one  stroke  as  it  were,  the  per- 
sonality of  each  man  was  deepened,  naj^,  consecrated,  while 
at  the  same  time  his  bond  of  sympathy  with  all  other  human 
beings  was  strengthened.  Two  opposite  results  were  thus 
attained,  and  these  two  were  conciliated.  For  the  deepening 
of  man's  spiritual,  personal  life  meant  the  life  with  God, 
and  it  was  in  and  through  this  life  that  his  personality  be- 
came a  matter  of  infinite  worth.  But  this  rooting  of  the 
finite  subject  in  the  eternal  and  universal  Reason,  while 
giving  infinite  worth  to  the  soul  of  each  man,  at  the  same 
time  made  impossible  that  insolence  of  individualism  and 
self-assertipn  which  had  characterized  the  subjective  move- 
ment among  the  Greeks.  Man  became,  as  a  personality, 
much  greater  than  the  most  exalted  Stoic  could  have  con- 
ceived; but  by  the  very  same  act  he  was  taught  humility, 
dependence,  humanity,  love."^ 

1  Laurie,  Rise  and  Coustitution  of  Universities,  pp.  22,  23. 


234  Waymarks. 

"  Humility,  dependence,  humanity,  love."  My  breth- 
ren, these  are  the  things  that  have  been  pre-eminently 
taught  here.  The  record  of  this  school  is  not  devoid  of 
honors  won  by  its  sons  on  many  fields  of  endeavor  and 
in  many  halls  of  learning.  The  standard  of  its  scholar- 
ship, as  illustrated  in  the  standing  of  its  pupils,  is  such 
as  any  mother  might  point  to  with  just  pride.  But  its 
pre-eminent  distinction  has  been  that  it  has  taught  its 
children  faith,  and  reverence,  and  the  eternal  sanctity  of 
duty.  And  these  things  it  has  taught,  not  alone  in  the 
class-room,  by  text-book,  through  the  impressive  lessons 
of  history,  but  most  of  all  in  St.  Paul's  chapel.  The 
daily  prayers,  the  weekly  sacraments,  the  well  remem- 
bered sermons,  the  Sunday  afternoon  Bible  lessons, — 
these  have  been  powers  that  have  taught  Christ's  pres- 
ence in  His  Church  and  Christ's  message  to  His  children 
in  a  language  never  to  be  forgotten.  Once  and  again 
and  again  —  I  know  it  from  testimonies  which  might 
well  be  brought  here  to  help  to  hallow  by  their  inspiring 
memories  this  holy  and  beautiful  house  —  has  some 
young  life,  struggling  in  the  meshes  of  strong  temptation, 
torn  by  doubt,  or  smitten  by  a  sense  of  its  sin,  heard 
from  yonder  altar  or  yonder  pulpit  words  of  hope  and 
pardon,  a  message  of  life-giving  love  and  courage.  Once 
and  again  and  again,  have  young  feet,  turning  thither 
tardily  and  reluctantly,  found  themselves,  like  Jacob  at 
Peniel,  halted  on  their  earthly  way,  and  called  to  climb 
the  gleaming  ladder  ascending  to  the  skies.  Ah !  my 
young  brothers,  alumni  of  this  school,  am  I  not  telling 
the  story  of  some  of  you  as  I  speak  these  words  ?     As 


Church  Schools  in  America.  235 

you  come  back  here  to-day,  to  join  with  us  in  giving  this 
sanctuary,  your  gift,  to  God,  do  not  your  hearts  turn  to 
the  dear  old  chapel  —  the  hallowed  place  which  those 
who  have  come  after  you  have  found  "  too  strait "  —  with 
tender  and  inextinguishable  devotion  ?  The  convictions 
that  are  deepest  in  your  lives  to-day,  the  faith  that  when 
the  world  scoffs  yet  lives  and  glows  within  you,  the  rev- 
erence for  goodness,  the  love  of  nobleness,  —  tell  me,  are 
not  these  things  linked  in  your  memories  with  lessons  that 
you  learned  here,  lessons* which  you  will  never  forget  ? 

Believe  me,  I  am  not  unmindful,  in  saying  this,  that 
the  personal  element  in  all  the  religious  life  of  this 
school  has  been  a  pre-eminent  element,  and  that  to  that, 
under  God,  the  influence  of  its  chapel  and  its  chapel 
services,  its  whole  system  of  churchly  teaching,  have 
been  largely  due.  John  Henry  Newman,  in  his  essay 
on  "  Private  Judgment,"  calls  attention,  with  character- 
istic acuteness,  to  the  limitations  of  such  a  judgment. 
He  says  :  — 

'*It  is  much  easier  to  form  a  correct  and  rapid  judgment 
of  persons  than  of  books  or  of  doctrines.  Every  one.  even 
a  child,  has  an  impression  about  new  faces ;  few  persons  have 
any  real  view  about  new  propositions.  There  is  something 
in  the  sight  of  persons  .  .  .  which  speaks  to  us  for  approval 
or  disapprobation  with  a  distinctness  to  which  pen  and  ink 
are  unequal.  .  .  .  Reason  is  slow  and  abstract,  cold  and 
speculative;  but  man  is  a  being  of  feeling  and  action;  he 
is  not  resolvable  into  a  dictum  de  omni  et  nulla,  or  a  series  of 
hypotheticals,  or  a  critical  diatribe,  or  an  algebraical  equa- 
tion. And  this  obvious  fact  does,  as  far  as  it  goes,  make  it 
probable  that  if  we  are  providentially  obliged  to  exercise  our 


236  Waymarks. 

private  judgment,  the  point  towards  which  we  have  to  direct 
it  is  the  teacher  rather  than  the  doctrine."  ^ 

In  the  case  of  a  boy,  Newman  might  safely  have 
written  for  "  probable "  the  word  "  inevitable."  It  is_ 
tlie  teacher,  rather  than  the  thing  taught,  which  is  the 
foremost  potentiality  in  influencing  any  boy ;  and  I  may 
not  be  denied  even  by  the  restraints  of  this  place  the 
expression  of  our  feeling  of  grateful  homage  and  affec- 
tion for  the  character  and  services  of  one  to  whom, 
under  God,  the  work  and  influence  of  this  school  are 
pre-eminently  due.  His  honored  associates  in  this  work, 
his  boys,  now  men  by  hundreds,  bearing,  many  of  them, 
the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day  in  many  a  place  of  honor 
and  usefulness  in  Church  and  State,  will  never  be  able 
to  separate,  in  their  thought  and  memory,  St.  Paul's 
school  and  St.  Paul's  chapel  from  the  rare  and  com- 
manding personality  of  him  who  is  so  absolutely  identi- 
fied with  both  of  them. 

But  yet  the  fact  remains  —  is  it  not  the  very  office  of 
this  service  and  of  this  building  to  remind  us  of  it  ?  — 
that,  in  the  realm  of  the  highest  things,  the  personality 
that  moves  and  influences  others  is  the  personality  that 
itself  has  been  wrought  upon  by  a  Force  from  without 
and  above.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  was  right,  only  in  a 
sense  infinitely  higher,  I  fear,  than  he  himself  recognized, 
when  he  said  the  other  day,  that  what  our  American 
society  waits  for  is  to  be  born  avcoOev,  from  above.  It 
is  the  teacher  and  the  teaching  that  know  the  spell  of 
that  quickening  that  shall  move  society  and  the  world ! 

1  Essays  Critical  aud  Historical,  vol.  ii.  p.  353.      London,  1871. 


Church  Schools  in  America.  237 

But  where,  save  here,  my  brothers,  can  they  learn  it  ? 
The  problems  of  the  teacher  in  our  generation  are 
certainly  not  easier  than  the  old.  On  the  contrary, 
I  think  it  must  be  owned  that  there  is  much  in  the 
intellectual  atmosphere  of  our  time  to  make  them 
harder.  Never  was  there  an  age  more  impatient  of 
what  it  calls  the  lumber  of  useless  learning.  Says  the 
hard,  dry,  material  spirit  of  the  hour  :  "  I  want  my  boy 
taught  how  to  use  his  hands  and  brain  in  such  tasks 
as  will  win  the  most  prizes  and  earn  the  most  money. 
Is  this  education  of  yours  a  convertible  article,  which 
may  be  turned  readily  into  dollars  and  cents  ?  For  if 
not,  I  want  none  of  it  I  Greek,  Latin,  Scripture  studies, 
the  history  of  the  past  —  what  have  these  to  do  with  the 
ores  of  Mexico  and  the  exports  of  Singapore  ? "  And 
this  spirit,  which  makes  itself  felt  in  many  ways,  cares 
little  for  conduct  and  less  for  character.  It  offers  a 
direct  premium  to  any  teacher  who  will  content  himself 
with  veneering  his  pupil  with  a  thin  coating  of  accom- 
plishments, or  drilling  his  brain  in  the  use  of  mechanical 
formulce.  Surely,  I  do  not  need  to  tell  those  who  hear 
me  this  morning  that  this  is  not  the  way  in  which  men 
are  made,  —  men  who  are  to  rule  themselves,  their  own 
passions,  their  own  powers,  and  so  to  rule  the  world. 
To  influence  a  man,  to  influence  a  boy,  you  must  not 
merely  know  him  or  deal  with  him  from  without,  but 
from  within.     Says  Edward  Thring:  ^ 

"A  grand  cathedral  is  a  glorious  specimen  of  thought  in 
stone  ;  but  to  many  it  is  but  stone,  with  no  message  of  the 
1  The  Theory  and  Practice  of  Teaching,  pp.  37-40. 


238  Waymarks. 

higher  life,  of  which,  nevertheless,  it  is  a  most  true  and  liv- 
ing expression.  .  .  .  When  a  traveller  in  the  distance,  com- 
ing to  see  it,  crosses  the  last  hill,  ten  miles  off,  the  massive 
walls  and  towers  .  .  .  mark  it  as  a  building  intended  for 
worship.  Many  are  satisfied  at  this  point.  .  .  .  Some  go 
nearer  .  .  .  but  the  landscape,  not  the  cathedral,  is  still 
the  main  consideration.  ...  In  the  precincts  all  the  out- 
side can  be  seen.  .  .  .  But  the  great  purj^ose  does  not  reveal 
itself  till  the  reader  of  mind  addresses  himself  to  the  inner 
truth,  and  lovingly  .  .  .  searches  out  the  history,  learns  the 
plan,  strives  to  enter  into  the  secret  shrine  of  the  feelings 
which  wrought  out  the  .  .  .  sanctuary,  and  to  translate  out 
of  the  stone  the  speech  which  in  very  truth  is  in  it.  [But] 
then,  as  he  gazes,  spirit  answers  spirit.  .  .  .  The  dumb  walls 
speak,  the  beam  unlocks  its  secret  ...  to  a  spirit  that  can 
watch  and  wait  and  learn.   .   .   . 

*'Such  is  the  power  of  getting  near,  the  power  of  the 
right  point  of  view,  when  distance  is  got  rid  of  and  mind 
touches  mind.  .  .  .  [And]  whenever  life  is  in  question, 
and  the  higher  manifestations  of  life,  this  power  of  get- 
ting closer  and  closer,  of  being  admitted  inside,  as  it  were, 
and  penetrating  to  the  innermost  sanctuary  and  most  secret 
work  of  the  organism,  whatever  it  may  be,  building,  paint- 
ing, music,  book,  man,  ...  is  the  only  means  by  which 
mind  can  be  reached  and  true  success  attained.  This  is 
simply  the  teacher's  starting-point.'' 

Yes,  but  again  I  ask,  Where  but  here  can  such  a 
power  be  attained  ?  Spiritual  touch,  spiritual  insight 
—  these  are  none  other  than  the  gifts  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  these  are  the  gifts  with  which  Augustine, 
and  Arnold,  and  Muhlenberg,  nay,  with  which  He 
who  is  the  Master  of  every  true  teacher,  living  or 
dead,   and   who  "  knew   what   was  in   man,"  wrought 


Church  Schools  in  America.  239 

within  that  divinest  sanctuary,  which  was  made  to  be 
the  Temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  which  is  the  human 
heart.  And  so  to-day  we  come  here  to  dedicate  this 
holy  house  as  the  centre  and  source  of  all  those  gracious 
and  regenerating  influences  which  have  made  this 
school  a  power  in  the  land,  and  which  have  made  its 
administration  most  of  all  memorable,  as  illustrating  a 
Christian  nurture,  itself  in  touch  with  Christ,  and  rich  in 
the  fruits  of  the  Spirit.  The  boys,  the  men,  of  the 
future^  believe  me,  fathers  and  brethren  —  our  hope  for 
them,  nay,  our  hope  for  the  Church,  our  hope  for  our 
land,  must  find  its  reason  here !  Other  Samuels,  yet  to 
rule  in  Israel,  must  come  within  these  walls,  and  hear 
God  call,  and  answer,  "  Here  am  I !  "  Or  else,  what- 
ever triumphs  may  be  won,  the  end  will  be  but  failure, 
and  all  gain  but  loss. 

And  so  I  congratulate  you,  my  right  reverend  father, 
and  you,  gentlemen  of  the  trustees  of  this  school,  and  you, 
my  reverend  brother,  who  have  been  from  its  foundation 
its  rector,  upon  the  hopes  long  cherished  which  find 
fulfilment  here  to-day.  This  is  the  fitting  crown  upon  a 
life-work  memorable  for  results  which  glowing  and  grate- 
ful hearts  all  over  this  land  will  never  cease  to  cherish. 
I  may  not  speak  of  them  as  I  would,  for  I  know  well 
the  pain  that  even  this  brief  allusion  may  cause  to  one 
to  whom  all  personal  praise  is  at  once  pain  and  punish- 
ment, but  I  shall  not  be  denied  the  privilege  of  mingling 
my  joy  with  yours  who  have  come  up  here  to-day,  upon 
this  fair  and  finished  work.  The  venerable  donor  of 
the  material  foundation  of  this  school  comes  back  here 


240  Waymarks. 

to-day,  "  his  eye  not  dim  nor  liis  natural  force  abated," 
to  own  that  when  he  made  the  first  gift  —  wise,  large- 
hearted,  and  far-seeing  —  from  which  this  school  has 
grown,  "  he  builded  better  than  he  knew,"  and  loving 
hearts  in  both  hemispheres,  St.  Paul's  boys,  w^ho  under 
many  skies,  in  ranch  and  pulpit,  at  desk  or  on  quarter- 
deck, are  bearing  the  honor  of  Alma  Mater  as  a  white 
guerdon  on  their  hearts,  are  lifting  their  prayers  with 
ours  as  they  pray,  "  For  my  brethren  and  companions' 
sake  I  will  wish  thee  prosperity  :  peace  be  within  thy 
walls  and  plenteousness  within  thy  palaces !  "  May 
God  be  pleased  to  hear  that  prayer,  and  grant  to  it 
abundant  answer.  Aiid  when  our  work  is  done,  and 
tired  hands  and  feet  are  crossed  in  rest,  may  children 
and  children's  children  still  come  here  to  learn  to 
serve  God  in  His  Holy  Church,  and  to  give  thanks  for 
all  the  love  that  here  has  led  and  fed  and  taught 
them ! 


AMERICAN   CHURCHES   IN   EUROPE. 

It  is  a  common  accusation  against  republics  that  they  fail 
to  inspire  the  spirit  of  loyalty;  and  defenders  of  monarchical 
institutions  are  fond  of  insisting  that  there  can  be  no  patriot- 
ism without  devotion  to  a  person. 

The  history  of  elder  republics  would  be  a  sufficient  answer 
to  that  charge,  if  it  found  no  refutation  in  republics  that  are 
more  modern.  But  if  there  were  no  other  evidence  of  a 
strong  national  feeling  in  Americans,  a  very  interesting 
proof  of  it  might  be  found  in  the  inauguration  in  the  leading 
capitals  of  Europe  of  religious  services  in  which  the  ministra- 
tions are  conducted  by  clergj^men  who  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States,  according  to  the  only  liturgy  in  the  English 
language  habitually  in  use  in  that  republic,  and  in  which  a 
conspicuous  feature  is  always  the  prayers  for  rulers  of  the 
republic,  and  for  its  Senate  and  Representatives  in  Congress 
assembled. 

When  these  services  were  originally  and  somewhat  ten- 
tatively initiated  it  was  objected  that  they  were  not  only  un- 
necessary but  confusing.  In  every  one  of  the  cities  in  which 
they  were  begun,  there  were  already  services  in  the  -English 
language,  conducted  by  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England, 
whose  liturgy  and  usages  were  substantially  identical  with 
those  of  American  Churchmen.  It  was  urged,  not  without 
force,  that  in  countries  where  a  corrupted  form  of  Christianity 
prevailed  it  was  much  to  be  desired  that  those  who  disowned 
its  authority  should  i)resent,  as  far  as  possible,  a  united 
front;  and  it  was  further  felt  that  it  was  an  ungracious  re- 
turn for  the  nursing  care  which  the  Church  of  England  had 

16 


242  Wat/marks. 

vouchsafed  to  its  American  daughter  in  that  daughter's 
earlier  and  less  prosperous  childhood,  that  the  child  should 
show  itself  unwilling  to  worship  at  its  mother's  knee. 

But  there  were  other  influences  which  proved  too  strong  to 
be  restrained  by  considerations  such  as  these ;  and  a  foremost 
one  among  them  was  undoubtedly  that  ardent  national  feel- 
ing which,  as  American  travellers  illustrate  it  in  so  many 
and  such  unexpected  ways,  is  to  foreigners  a  matter  of  con- 
stant and  profound  surprise. 

It  is  this  feeling  which  largely  explains  the  existence  in 
Eome,  Paris,  Dresden,  and  Nice  of  costly  and  beautiful 
church  edifices  erected  solely  by  the  gifts  of  Americans,  and 
which  also  explains  the  maintenance  of  services  under  Ameri- 
can auspices  in  Florence,  Berlin,  Geneva,  and  other  European 
centres.  Two  of  the  churches  thus  erected  would  be  memo- 
rable structures  anywhere;  and  the  sermons  which  follow 
were  preached  the  one  in  connection  with  the  consecration 
of  St.  Paul's  American  Church  in  Eome,  on  March  29,  1876, 
and  the  other  on  the  occasion  of  the  consecration  of  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Paris,  on  Thanksgiving  Day, 
November,  1886.  The  former  of  these  edifices  owes  its  erec- 
tion largely  to  the  well-directed  energy,  rare  artistic  taste, 
and  unwearied  perseverance  of  the  Kev.  Dr.  Robert  J.  Nevin, 
who,  having  served  his  country  with  distinction  during  her 
Civil  War,  entered  the  ministry,  and  became  rector  of  St. 
Paul's  Church,  Eome,  in  1869. 

The  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Paris,  a  structure  of  equal 
taste  and  dignity,  erected  at  a  cost  of  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  maintaining  throughout  the  year  a  service  of 
great  beauty  and  dignit}^,  is  no  less  indebted  to  the  Eev.  Dr. 
John  B.  Morgan,  who  became  its  rector  in  a.  d.  1872. 


XIV. 

THE   WITNESS   OF   SAINT   PAUL   IN  ROME. 

And  the  night  following  the  Lord  stood  by  him,  and  said, 
Be  of  good  cheer,  Paul ;  for  as  thou  hast  testified  of  me 
in  Jerusalem,  so  must  thou  bear  witness  also  at  Home.  — 
Acts  xxiii.  11. 

These  are  somewhat  discouraging  words  with  which  to 
raise  a  man's  despondent  spirits.  As  you  will  remem- 
ber, they  follow  that  fearless  and  impassioned  argument 
which  the  Apostle  had  made  in  behalf  of  his  message 
and  his  Master,  and  made,  as  it  seemed  for  the  moment, 
in  vain.  Standing  there  in  Jerusalem  on  the  castle 
stairs,  he  had  told  his  own  story,  and  with  it  had  de- 
clared the  nature  of  his  Lord's  commission ;  and  no 
sooner  had  he  proclaimed  that  that  commission  called 
him  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  Gentiles  than  men  who 
till  that  moment  had  listened  to  him  with  absorbed  at- 
tention, spurned  him  from  their  presence,  declaring  that 
it  was  not  fit  that  he  should  live. 

We  know  the  rest,  —  how,  when  he  is  summoned  from 
this  arraignment  before  the  mob  to  appear  at  the  bar  of 
the  Sanhedrim,  he  opens  his  lips  before  what  ought  to 
have  been  that  cooler  and  more  impartial  tribunal  to 


244  Way  marks. 

have  them  closed  with  an  insult  and  a  blow  ;  we  know 
how,  by  one  chance  word  of  his,  his  examination  before 
the  council  is  converted  into  a  fight  so  fierce  between  its 
two  opposing  parties  that  ''  the  chief  captain,  fearing 
lest  the  Apostle  should   be  torn   in  pieces   of  them," 
snatches  him  away  from  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  alike, 
and  locks  him  in  a  dungeon  in  the  castle.     Have  we 
ever  thought  of  his  reflections  there  ?     Ah,  how  hard 
he  had  tried  to  bring  his    countrymen  to   understand 
him !     With  what  consummate  w^isdom,  with  what  ex- 
haustless  patience,  with  what  rare  and  singular  blending 
of  winning  candor  and  delicate  reserve  had  he  spoken 
his  message  !     Well,  as  he  thought  it  all  over,  —  as  his 
thin  and  restless  fingers  absently  pressed  the  lips  still 
bruised  and  bleeding,  it  may  be,  with  the  blow  which  no 
brutal  foreigner,  but  an  Israelitish  hand  had  dealt  him, 
—  how  do  you  think  he  estimated  the  situation  ?     Did 
this  look  much  like  success  ?     Were  these  the  victories 
which  the  Gospel  was  to  achieve  ?     Was  he  never  to 
open  his  mouth  for  that  Master  whom  he  loved  with 
such  ardent  and  passionate  devotion  without  rousing  the 
fires  of  human  resentment  and  kindling  anew  the  dying 
embers  of  a  sectarian  animosity  ?     It  is  easy  to  say  that 
the  Apostle  had  counted  the  cost  beforehand,  and  under- 
stood that  his  preaching  would  provoke  official  opposition 
and  personal  insult.     I  presume  he  had  ;  but  I  imagine 
that  he  had  some  human  sensibilities  to  be  wounded  and 
cast  down ;  and  I  venture  to  think  that  we  do  not  under- 
stand him  any  better,  but  rather  worse,  by  lifting  him 
in  our  ordinary  conceptions  of  him  to  a  pedestal  where 


The    Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  246 

no  disheartening  experiences  could  touch  or  depress 
him  ;  and  so  I  think  that  just  at  this  point  he  may  easily 
have  been  profoundly  disheartened.  What  now  was  there 
in  the  message  that  came  to  him  when  that  night  the 
Lord  stood  by  him  to  cheer  and  reassure  him  ?  "  Be  of 
good  cheer,  Paul ;  for  as  thou  hast  testified  of  Me  in 
Jerusalem  so  must  thou  bear  witness  also  in  Rome." 

The  words  present  the  two  imperial  cities  in  sugges- 
tive contrast.  It  is  the  sixtieth  year  of  the  Christian 
era.  Israel  is  a  province  of  Rome,  and  Jerusalem  is  a 
conquered  capital.  Here  and  there  the  message  of  the 
Cross  has  won  a  handful  of  disciples,  but  on  the  whole 
Judaism  is  as  haughty,  as  scornful,  as  unrelenting  in  its 
animosity  to  the  truth  of  Christ  as  when  it  nailed  the 
Saviour  to  the  cross.  Nay,  the  loss  of  their  civil  power 
seems  only  to  have  made  the  Israelitish  priesthood  more 
resolute  and  more  tenacious  in  the  maintenance  of  their 
national  faith.  If  they  drew  their  sacerdotal  cordon 
round  a  more  contracted  circle  of  sovereignty,  they 
maintained  those  religious  peculiarities  which  that 
cordon  inclosed  with  a  pertinacity  all  the  more  inflexible. 
There  is  nothing  grander  in  apostolic  history  than  those 
two  defences  of  the  Apostle's  which  immediately  precede 
the  text.  And  yet  how  impotent  they  seemed  to  have 
been !  The  man  has  spoken  with  his  whole  heart  in  his 
message,  and  with  his  whole  soul,  eager,  nay,  on  fire 
with  his  lofty  purpose,  looking  out  of  his  eyes.  And  the 
end  of  it  is  the  wild  clamor  of  a  mob;  and,  a  little 
later,  the  infuriated  dissensions  of  rival  sects.  It  is  at 
such  a  moment  that  he  is  bidden  to  be  of  good  cheer  — 


246  Waymarks. 

of  good  cheer,  as  lie  lies  there  in  a  felon's  cell,  bound 
and  smitten  because,  as  he  had  testified  of  Christ  at 
Jerusalem,  so  must  he  bear  witness  of  Him  at  Rome. 
Verily,  as  I  began  by  saying,  these  are  somewhat 
strange  words  with  which  to  raise  a  man's  despondent 
spirits. 

For,  if  we  know  what  Jerusalem  was  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  60,  we  know  equally  well  what  Rome  was.  It 
was  midway  in  the  reign  of  Nero.  Stained  as  were  both 
emperor  and  court  with  crime,  there  was  as  yet  no 
decadence  of  Rome's  imperial  power.  The  riches  that 
she  had  snatched  from  the  coffers  of  conquered  nations 
still  glittered  in  her  palaces,  and  went  to  enrich  her 
senators  and  captains.  There  had  been  great  cruelty  in 
her  conquests,  but  there  was  still  splendid  organization 
in  her  armies,  and  not  yet  wholly  decayed  or  impotent 
were  those  great  ideas  of  law,  as  regulating  private  license 
and  dominating  individual  caprice,  which  had  done  so 
much  to  lift  her  into  her  place  as  mistress  of  the  world. 
It  is  true  that  her  people  were  more  tolerant  of  religious 
diversities  than  the  Jew,  but  it  was  the  toleration  of 
contempt,  or,  at  least,  the  liberality  of  indifferentism. 
In  the  Pantheon  were  the  deities  of  every  land  and  the 
shrines  of  every  faith,  and  if  he  could  care  to,  the  Apostle 
knew  that  he  would  be  permitted  to  rear  there  an  altar 
even  to  the  despised  Nazarene.  But  none  knew  better 
than  this  trained  Hebrew  scholar  —  pupil  sometime  at 
the  feet  of  Gamaliel  —  that  the  teacher  who  should  hint 
that  the  deities  of  the  Pantheon  were  all  alike  to  yield 
to   the   incomparable    sovereignty   of  the   Man   Christ 


The    Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  2-xl 

Jesus,  would  be  hooted  for  his  presumption,  if  he  were 
not  laughed  at  for  his  infatuation. 

And  yet  this  very  task  it  is  that  is  presented  to  him 
to  cheer  him  amid  the  discouragements  of  that  other 
task  with  which  here  we  find  him  confronted. 

Whatever  may  seem  to  have  been  the  strangeness  of 
such  a  message,  we  know  well  that  it  did  not  fail  of  its 
effect.  The  greater,  harder  task  that  opened  before  the 
Apostle,  instead  of  daunting,  seems  only  to  have  inspired 
him.  He  may  have  been  disheartened  as  he  lay  down  to 
sleep  Avithin  the  castle-walls,  but  though  he  woke  next 
morning  to  learn  of  a  conspiracy  whose  successful  ac- 
complishment would  have  brought  to  him  a  speedy  rest 
from  his  labors,  yet  with  characteristic  energy  he  de- 
feats the  plot  and  makes  ready  for  his  journey  to  Rome. 
And  why  ?  Ah !  why,  but  because,  as  he  reminds  him- 
self, even  as  in  that  midnight  vision  his  Master  Himself 
had  reminded  him,  he  is  not  doing  his  own  work,  but 
God's  work  ;  not  sent  to  bear  witness  of  Paul,  but  to 
teach  and  to  preach  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 
What  mattered  it  what  became  of  himself,  or  of  his 
Words  or  labors  or  whole  ministrv  ?  He  was  not  in- 
augurating  a  new  school  of  Pauline  philosophy,  or  gath- 
ering a  new  sect  of  Pauline  disciples.  He  might  preach 
to  unwilling  ears  in  Rome  even  as  he  had  in  Jerusalem ; 
and  his  Master's  message,  instead  of  winning  assent, 
might  continue  to  provoke  resentment.  But  his  calling 
was  simply  to  bear  witness,  and  He  whose  message  he 
proclaimed  would  take  care  of  His  own  truth  and  win 
for  it  acceptance  in  His  own  time  and  way.     Did  He  bid 


248  Waymarks. 

him  bear  that  message  to  still  unfriendlier  shores  and  to 
testify  of  the  Cross  to  still  more  alienated  peoples  ? 
That  call  was  an  inspiration,  no  matter  how  hopeless 
the  outlook.  If  God  had  other  work  for  him  to  do, 
his  it  was  to  do  it  with  a  trustful  and  undaunted  heart. 
The  words  recalled  him  from  himself  and  his  discour- 
agements to  his  Master  and  His  message.  They  re- 
minded him  whose  messenger  he  was,  and  with  whose 
truths  he  was  intrusted. 

And  that  consciousness,  alike  profound  and  indwelling, 
was  at  once  the  spell  of  his  power  and  the  secret  of  his 
success.  Need  I  remind  you  how  in  a  few  short  years 
the  whole  face  of  things  was  changed,  alike  in  that 
capital  which  he  was  now  leaving,  and  in  that  other  and 
mightier  capital  to  which  he  was  sent  ?  Need  I  remind 
you  how  in  a  little  while  there  came  to  be  saints  even  in 
"■Caesar's  household" — tliat  Caesar  whose  vices  were 
even  then  so  rank  as  to  scandalize  the  mobs  whom  he 
diverted  ?  Need  I  tarry  to  show  you  how,  next  to  the 
mighty  power  of  the  ministry  of  the  Master  Himself, 
there  is  no  single  influence  so  wide-reaching,  so  potential, 
so  marvellously  transforming,  as  the  influence  of  Paul 
the  Apostle  in  all  the  history  of  primitive  Cliristianity  ? 
As  a  few  years  later  they  led  the  aged  Israelite  without 
the  walls  along  that  Ostian  highway  whose  earth,  who, 
here  this  morning,  has  not  trod  with  a  tenderer  reverence 
because  of  the  martyr's  memory  ?  his  Roman  executioners 
thought  they  were  putting  an  end  to  a  troublesome 
enthusiast  and  to  a  contemptible  and  insignificant  sect. 
And  yet,  already  had  the  Apostle's  witness  to  his  Lord 


The   Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  249 

struck  deep  such  roots  as  shook,  ere  long,  the  very  foun- 
dations of  the  empire  itself.  In  less  than  three  centuries 
Rome  was  ruled  by  a  Christian  sovereign,  and  the  ban- 
ners of  the  empire,  whether  they  waved  in  Jerusalem  or 
in  Rome,  were  blazoned  with  the  image  of  the  cross.  In 
the  spirit  in  which  he,  this  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles, 
had  labored,  other  men  caught  up  the  standard  which 
fell  from  his  dying  hand  and  bore  it  forward  to  still 
wider  and  larger  conquests.  Read  the  story  of  the  men, 
ay,  and  of  the  women,  who  fell  in  yonder  amphitheatre, 
and  see  how  this  one's  solitary  idea  of  their  high  calling 
as  WITNESSES  for  Christ  conquered  their  fears  and 
steadied  their  courage  to  the  bitter  end !  And  this,  this 
it  was  that  men  could  not  misunderstand  nor  ignore. 
Who  was  this  Galilean  Divinity  who  could  inspire  such 
discipleship  and  draw  to  His  despised  standard  such 
saintly  heroism  ?  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that,  step  by 
step,  indifference  gave  way  to  curiosity,  and  curiosity  to 
interest,  and  interest  to  personal  faith  and  absolute 
devotion.  Men  lost  their  personality  in  Christ,  and  by 
the  indwelling  power  of  that  divine  life  which  made  the 
Apostle  himself  forever  to  say, "  Not  I,  but  Christ  which 
dwelleth  in  me,"  they  bore  such  witness  to  their  Lord  as 
won  the  world,  wherever  they  went,  to  bow  at  their 
Master's  feet. 

Happy  would  it  be  if  we  who  sit  here  this  morning 
had,  as  we  turn  over  the  pages  of  Christian  history, 
nothing  else  to  remember !  But  Jerusalem  and  Rome 
still  stand  to  invite  the  feet  of  the  pilgrim,  and  to 
challenge  the  inquisitiveness  of  the  student  of  history. 


250  Way  marks. 

And  what  can  we  say  of  the  witness  which  they  bear 
to-day  to  Him  to  whose  name  the  great  Apostle  once  so 
fearlessly  bore  testimony  within  their  walls  ?  How 
have  they  cherished  and  preserved  that  truth  which 
Paul  once  preached  to  them,  and  which  in  other  days 
found  at  length  such  wide  and  eager  welcome  ?  Alas  ! 
the  contrast  with  which  they  greet  us  to-day  is  as  pain- 
ful as  it  is  instructive.  It  is  but  a  few  weeks  since  it 
was  my  fortune  to  find  myself  for  the  first  time  in 
Jerusalem,  and  to  thread  with  reverent  curiosity  its 
ancient  streets.  There  are  others,  I  doubt  not,  here, 
who  have  made  the  same  pilgrimage,  and  looked  upon 
the  same  scenes.  If  so,  let  me  ask  you  if  there  is  any 
sadder  spectacle  than  that  ancient  city,  once  the  home 
of  the  Master  and  His  disciples,  hallowed  as  the  scene  of 
His  mighty  works  and  of  His  mightier  death,  given  up 
to-day  to  the  religion  of  the  Moslem  and  the  dominion 
of  the  Turk  ?  Yes,  there  is  a  sadder  sight  there  even 
than  this ;  and  it  is  the  sight  of  those  contending 
Christian  sects  whom  a  sneering  Mohammedanism  holds 
back  ofttimes,  with  force  of  arms,  from  tearing  each 
other  in  pieces,  and  whose  shameless  rivalries  and 
dissensions  profane  alike  the  birthplace  and  the 
sepulchre  of  their  common  Lord.  Where,  we  ask  in 
shamefacedness  and  despair,  as  we  wend  our  way 
among  those  scenes  which  supremely  the  Master  has 
hallowed  by  His  presence,  are  the  evidences  of  that 
earlier  devotion  which  counted  all  as  lost  for  Christ,  and 
had  no  other  aspiration  than  to  bear  its  daily  witness  to 
His  honor?     Alas,  we  know  now  how,  long   ago,  that 


The    Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  251 

simpler  and  single  devotion  died  out  of  the  church  of 
Jerusalem  even  as  it  did  in  so  many  others  of  the 
churches  of  the  East.  We  know  now  how  selfish 
ambitions  and  a  passion  for  personal  aggrandizement 
usurped,  in  the  hearts  of  prelates  and  priests  and  people, 
that  other  and  heaven-born  passion  for  the  glory  of 
Christ  and  his  gospel  which  burned  in  the  heart  of 
Paul.  We  know  now  how,  when  in  the  seventh  century 
Sophronius,  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  surrendered 
the  holy  city  to  the  Moslem  Caliph,  he  found  only  an 
old  man  seated  on  the  ground  eating  dried  dates  and 
drinking  only  water,  —  a  man  having  but  one  single 
ambition,  and  that  to  win  converts  to  the  faith  of 
Mohammed  ;  and  we  know,  too,  how  then  too  late  he 
realized  that  Mohammedanism  had  conquered  Chris- 
tianity by  snatching  from  it  its  own  weapons  of  supreme 
devotion  to  a  leader,  and  of  self-forgetful  "sacrifices  for 
his  sake.  From  that  day  to  this,  as  we  all  know,  amid 
whatever  varying  fortunes,  the  aspect  of  Jerusalem  has 
not  greatly  changed.  Christ  is  still  a  stranger  to  the 
vast  majority  of  its  people,  and  His  name  at  best  a  jest 
or  a  byword  upon  their  lips.^ 

And  if  it  is  thus  to-day  in  Jerusalem,  how  is  it  to-day 
in  Rome  ?  God  forbid  that  I  should  use  this  place  or 
these  moments  to  call  hard  names  or  to  bring  any  rail- 
ing accusation  against  those  of  whatever  faith  who 
profess  and  call  themselves  Christians.  But  where 
shall  we  look  in  this  Rome  of  to-day  for  that  earlier  and 
loftier   devotion   which,   among   the   converts   of   Paul 

1  See  Irving's  "  Mahomet  aud  his  Successors,"  chap,  xviii. 


252  Waymarks. 

the  Apostle,  burned  and  glowed  at  the  name  of  Christ  ? 
Where  shall  we  look  for  that  single  and  supreme  love 
for  Him  which  would  allow  no  other,  above  all  no  mere 
creature  alone,  to  usurp  that  honor  which  belongs  to 
Him  ?  Where  shall  we  look  for  a  priesthood  and  a 
people  with  no  thought  of  mere  ecclesiastical  aggran- 
dizement, and  no  impulse  but  of  love  for  the  souls  of 
men  ?  Where  shall  we  look  for  the  daily  manifestation 
of  that  one  supreme  truth,  which,  as  it  was  central  to 
the  preaching  of  the  Apostle,  must  needs  be  central  to 
every  living  church,  —  the  truth  that  the  aim  of  a 
Christian  life  is  not  any  selfish  achievement,  but  simply 
to  bear  its  clear  and  steadfast  witness  to  that  Lord  who 
hath  bought  it  with  His  blood  ? 

If  we  fear  lest  we  might  look  in  vain  for  such  a 
manifestation  elsewhere  in  this  ancient  capital,  let  us 
see  to  it  that  we  do  not  look  in  vain  for  it  here.  We 
who  have  reared  this  holy  house  to  God's  honor,  and 
consecrated  it  under  the  name  of  His  latest  called  but 
noblest  Apostle,  let  us  not  forget  that  its  presence  in 
these  streets  is  an  impertinence,  and  its  costliest  adorn- 
ments an  empty  mockery,  unless  here  there  is  mani- 
fested a  single  and  supreme  desire  to  bear  a  ceaseless 
testimony  to  the  name  and  work  of  Christ.  For  this, 
and  for  this  only,  if  I  understand  their  aims,  have 
Americans  reared  this  temple  and  given  it  to  their 
Lord.  Not  to  gratify  any  merely  national  pride,  not 
to  achieve  any  merely  sectarian  triumph,  not  to  secure 
a  safe  retreat  from  within  which  to  hurl  either  taunt  or 
defiance  at  Christians  of   other  whatsoever  name,  but 


The  Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  253 

simply  here  to  witness  for  their  Lord,  have  they  who 
have  toiled  and  they  who  have  given  up  builded  these 
hallowed  walls.  And  one  who  is  but  a  stranger  here 
may  at  least  venture  to  offer  the  prayer  that  no  other 
less  worthy  aspiration  may  ever  find  a  place  within 
them ! 

This  is  St.  Paul's  Church.  May  the  spirit  of  Paul  be 
evident  in  every  act  performed,  and  heard  in  every  word 
that  shall  be  spoken  here  ;  may  no  acrimoniousness 
of  partisan  clamor  ever  find  utterance  here  ;  may  no 
narrowness  of  vision  nor  selfishness  of  aim  shut  out 
from  the  siglit  of  priest  or  of  people  here  the  one  .soli- 
tary figure  of  a  crucified  and  risen  Christ ;  and  may  the 
services  which  shall  be  said  in  this  place,  and  every 
sermon  which  shall  be  preached  here,  witness  to  the 
infinite  love  and  compassion  of  that  Christ  in  a  language 
which  cannot  be  mistaken,  —  a  language  of  yearning 
tenderness,  and  yet  of  unsparing  truthfulness, —  a 
language  of  courageous  directness,  and  yet  of  ceaseless 
wisdom  ! 

Surely  it  is  a  happy  augury  that  this  church  is  to  bear 
the  name  of  the  "  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles ; "  for  who 
among  the  noble  army  of  evangelists  and  martyrs  who 
laid  the  first  foundations  of  Christ's  Church  has  illus- 
trated an  energy  so  untiring,  a  purpose  so  undaunted, 
and,  above  all,  a  wisdom  so  profound  ?  I  think  of  him 
standing  upon  Mars  Hill  amid  the  rival  divinities  of 
classic  Greece,  and  there,  instead  of  scoffing  at  the  idola- 
try which  greeted  him,  recognizing  with  Christ-like  ten- 
derness and  with  a  singular  and  high-bred  courtesy  the 


254  Way  marks. 

groping  aspirations  which  even  there  were  feeling  after 
God,  if  haplj  they  might  find  Him.  Something  of  such 
a  spirit,  something  of  such  dehcate  discrimination,  such 
large-hearted  sympathy,  one  may  surely  venture  to  pray 
for  in  behalf  of  him  who  shall  stand  in  this  place  and 
minister  at  yonder  altar.  For,  after  all,  the  responsi- 
bilities in  this  age,  and  supremely  in  this  ancient  city,  of 
one  who  is  called  here  to  dispense  the  word  and  sacra- 
ments of  the  Master  are  neither  slight  nor  small.  It  is 
an  age  of  restlessness  and  inquiry.  It  is  a  land  where, 
just  in  proportion  as  faith  has  been  challenged  to  yield 
its  most  blind  assent,  there  are  decaying  belief  and  in- 
creasing doubt. 

Would  to  God,  therefore,  that  from  these  walls  there 
might  go  forth  —  and  that,  too,  not  only  in  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  speech,  but  in  the  ancient  tongue  of  this  ancient 
people  —  a  new  message  of  love  and  of  life  to  souls  that 
are  now  groping  in  the  dark !  Would  to  God  that  we 
Americans,  who  owe  to  Rome,  with  her  treasures  of 
art  and  her  wealth  of  Christian  antiquities,  so  vast  and 
as  yet  so  utterly  unrequited  a  debt,  might  pay  it  back  to 
this  land  and  this  people  by  giving  to  them  the  treasure 
of  the  saving  and  transforming  gospel  of  a  living  and 
compassionate  Christ !  You  have  seen,  my  brother,  the 
visible  and  substantial  rewards  of  your  labors  in  the 
events  of  the  past  week.  May  they  be  but  the  earnest 
and  beginning  of  yet  nobler  and  more  enduring  rewards 
which  are  yet  to  come  !  Because  of  the  witness  which 
this  church  shall  bear  to  Christ  and  His  truth,  may  mul- 
titudes now  groping  in  ignorance  or  clouded  by  supersti- 


The  Witness  of  Saint  Paul  in  Rome.  255 

tion  come  to  know  the  transforming  power  of  a  pure  and 
Scriptural  faith,  and  the  comfort  of  simple  and  childlike 
trust  in  a  living  and  personal  Christ !  In  this  free  king- 
dom, where  at  last  the  principle  of  religious  liberty  has 
won  such  generous  recognition,  may  God  make  this  a 
free  church, — its  doors  wide  open  to  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men,  its  every  ministration  holding  forth  none 
other  than  that  truth  which  makes  men  free  indeed  I 


XV. 


SERMON. 

And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying,  If  God  will  be  with  me  and 
keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  .  .  .  so  that  I  come  again 
to  my  father'' s  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my 
God  ;  and  this  stone  which  I  have  set  up  for'  a  pillar  shall 
be  God^s  house.  —  Genesis  xxviii.  20-22. 

The  common  and  familiar  things  of  life  are  forever  sur- 
prising us  by  their  nearness  to  the  things  that  are  seem- 
ingly uncommon  and  remote.  Looking  at  men  from  the 
outside,  their  aims  and  activities  appear  to  us  tame  and 
secular  and  transient.  Here  is  a  workman  toiling  for 
his  wage  ;  yonder  is  a  woman  nursing  her  babe ;  over 
against  us  is  a  household  busy  with  its  thousand  petty 
interests,  —  and  all  alike  seem  centred  in  the  present. 
But  now  and  then  some  chance  breath  of  adverse  for- 
tune, some  startling  incident,  some  sudden  joy  or  grief, 
lifts  the  veil,  and  we  see  how  imperfectly  we  have  judged. 
The  workman  has  seen  a  vision  ;  the  nursing  mother  has 
heard  a  voice  ;  the  busy  houseliold  has  been  touched  by 
some  common  sorrow  or  some  common  inspiration.  Into 
these  lives  there  has  broken,  now  in  one  way  and  now 
in  another,  the  consciousness  of  another  life,  higher  than 


The  American  Church  in  Paris.  257 


the  senses,  more  ennobling  and  more  enduring  than  the 
present,  —  the  life,  in  one  word,  of  God  and  the  soul. 

Something  like  this  had  happened  to  that  young  man 
of  whom  we  have  been  reading  this  morning.  In  one 
aspect  of  it,  what  a  homely  and  commonplace  picture  it 
is  !  Here  is  a  youth  growing  up  among  pagan  surround- 
ings, who  is  bidden,  after  that  elder  fashion  of  parental 
authority  which  in  such  matters  we  Americans  have 
long  since  learned  to  disesteem  and  disregard,  to  go  and 
find  a  wife  among  his  mother's  kinsfolk.  "  And  Isaac 
called  Jacob  and  blessed  him,  and  charged  him,  and  said 
unto  him.  Thou  shalt  not  take  a  wife  of  the  daughters  of 
Canaan."  This  youth  of  godly  nurture  was  not  to  marry 
a  heathen.  ''  Arise  ;  go  to  Padam  Aram,  .  .  .  and  take 
thee  a  wife  from  thence  of  the  daughters  of  Laban,  thy 
mother's  brother."  That  was  the  errand  on  which  the 
young  man  set  out.  It  does  not  require  much  imagina- 
tion to  picture  the  thoughts  with  which  he  journeyed,  — 
the  youthful  enthusiasm,  the  delight  of  new-found  free- 
dom, the  eager  interest  of  a  traveller  amid  unfamiliar 
scenes,  and  also  the  shrewd  curiosity  of  an  acute  and 
forecasting  mind  ;  for  the  traveller  is  Jacob,  remember. 
All  these,  I  think,  we  can  readily  conceive  to  have  gone 
along  with  him.  And  then  there  comes  the  solitary  en- 
campment for  the  night,  with  the  stone  for  a  pillow,  and 
then  the  vision,  —  the  suddenly  opened  heavens,  the 
"  ladder  set  up  on  the  earth,"  "  the  angels  of  God  ascend- 
ing and  descending  on  it,"  and  the  Lord  standing  above  it. 
Ah,  what  a  new  world  broke  then,  it  may  have  been  for 
the  first  time,  upon  the  consciousness  of  that  young  soul ! 

17 


258  Waymarks, 

Trained  in  devout  routine,  nurtured  from  infancy  in  the 
simple  religion  of  his  fathers,  there  came  that  night,  as 
there  comes  in  some  such  pause  and  stillness  to  every 
young  soul  to-day,  the  vision  of  the  Lord.  His  journey 
to  Padan  Aram,  the  home  and  the  flocks  that  he  had  left 
behind  him,  the  pleasures  and  possessions  that  lay  be- 
fore him,  —  a  few  moments  ago,  and  as  he  fell  asleep 
these  had  seemed  the  sum  of  life ;  and  now  that  life  had 
come  to  have  another  meaning  and  another  end,  for 
"  behold,  the  Lord  stood  above  it." 

It  is  such  a  vision  which  explains  our  presence  here 
to-day.  Surely  the  occasion  which  assembles  us  is  as 
suggestive  as  it  is  unique.  Strangers  most  of  us  in 
this  strange  city,  we  have  gathered  here  to  give  to  God 
this  holy  and  beautiful  house  to  be  His  own  forever. 
Look  around,  1  pray  you,  and  see  with  what  cost  and 
massiveness  it  has  been  builded.  These  stately  outlines, 
these  enduring  columns,  this  unstinted  expenditure, 
these  ample  proportions,  do  not  suggest  the  transient  or 
the  temporary.  No,  they  are  the  fitting  expression  of 
an  enduring  provision  for  enduring  wants,  —  wants  that 
no  restlessness  can  smother,  nor  any  frivolity  ultimately 
ignore  or  forget. 

We  Americans  are  supposed  to  be  a  somewhat  flip- 
pant people,  more  or  less  intoxicated  by  a  prosperity 
which  is  largely  accidental,  and  which  has  made  us  fond 
of  pleasure,  display,  and  change.  These  are  the  tastes, 
we  are  told,  which  make  us  swarm  wherever  life  is  the 
most  gay  and  amusement  the  most  abundant ;  and 
under  such  conditions,  we  are  told  also,  we  are  very  apt 


The  American   Church  in  Paris.  259 

many  of  us  to  forget  our  earlier  nurture,  and  especially 
to  let  go  those  more  sacred  traditions  which  once  hound 
us  to  duty  and  to  God. 

I  am  not  here,  my  fellow-countrymen,  to  dispute  that 
charge  nor  to  bandy  words  with  those  who  have  made  it. 
Alas !  must  it  not  be  owned  that,  in  part,  at  any  rate,  it 
is  true,  and  that  there  are  those  whose  religion  has 
seemed  to  be  geographical,  —  of  force  and  authority  on 
one  continent,  and  somehow  suspended  as  to  its  duties 
and  obligations  in  another  ?  For  one,  I  have  no  desire 
to  ignore  a  fact  which  we  may  all  wisely  recognize,  and 
which  we  must  needs  profoundly  deplore. 

But  in  doing  so,  there  remains  that  other  fact, — 
thank  God  for  those  tokens  of  it  which  greet  us  else- 
where, as  well  as  here !  —  of  which  this  building  and 
these  services  are  the  witnesses.  Yes,  the  wayfarer  may 
forget  his  earlier  nurture  and  his  Father's  house,  but 
there  comes  a  moment  when,  amid  the  peril  and  loneli- 
ness  of  a  foreign  land,  that  happens  to  more  than  one 
such  which  happened  to  Jacob  on  his  way  to  Padan 
Aram ;  and  his  eyes  are  opened,  —  opened  to  his  own 
need,  opened  to  the  over-arching  care  that  broods  above 
liim,  opened  to  the  nearness  of  the  life  that  is  to  that 
other  which  is  to  be.  In  other  words,  we  may  outrun 
our  earlier  traditions  and  our  accustomed  restraints,  but 
we  cannot  outrun  those  deepest  hungers  which,  to-day 
as  of  old,  utter  themselves  in  the  prayer  of  the  fugitive 
David  :  "  From  the  ends  of  the  earth  I  cry  unto  thee  to 
help  me :  lead  me  to  the  Rock  that  is  higher  than  I." 

It  is  to  satisfy  those  hungers  that  these  services  long 


260  Waymarhs. 

ago  were  instituted,  and  that  this  house  has  now  been 
reared.  It  is  a  witness  at  once  to  our  individual  needs 
and  to  our  belief,  as  a  nation,  in  God  and  His  revelation 
of  grace  and  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ.  I  know 
that  the  existence  of  tiiat  belief  has  been  doubted  if  not 
denied,  and  that  our  American  republic  has  been 
widely  represented  as  a  nation  which,  having  no  estab- 
lished religion,  has  hardly  any  at  all.  I  may  not  tarry 
here  to  show  how  false  is  any  such  impression  alike  to 
the  history  of  our  past  and  the  witness  of  our  present. 
Those  who  have  read  the  one  do  not  need  to  be  reminded 
how  the  foundations  of  our  republic  were  laid  by  God- 
fearing men,  nor  do  Churchmen  need  to  be  told  that 
Washington  and  some  of  his  most  illustrious  associates 
were  children  of  the  same  household  of  faith  which 
gathers  us  to-day.  And  as  little  do  intelligent  students 
of  the  religious  history  of  our  own  land  need  to  have 
demonstrated  to  them  the  fact  that  the  most  aggressive 
form  of  modern  Christianity  to-day,  that  whose  missionary 
activities,  whether  at  home  or  abroad  are  the  most  gener- 
ous in  their  expenditures  and  the  most  untiring  in  their 
efforts,  is  that  Anglo-Saxon  Christianity  which  finds  its 
home  in  the  United  States  of  America.  Indeed,  of  what 
is  this  sanctuary  the  token,  roared  though  I  know  it  is, 
in  good  part,  by  the  gifts  of  those  who  are  resident  here, 
—  nay,  what  is  the  faithful  and  patient  ministry  of  him 
who  has  voluntarily  expatriated  himself  that  he  may 
labor  here,  but  tokens  of  how  that  American  Church 
whose  children  we  are  cares  for  her  children,  so  far  as 
she  is  able,  wherever  they  may  go,  and  follows  them,  as 


The  American   Church  in  Paris.  261 

the  angel  of  God  followed  Jacob,  into  a  foreign  land 
with  that  incomparable  message  of  hope  and  consolation 
without  which  life  becomes  an  intolerable  burden,  and 
the  grave  the  gateway  of  despair. 

Such  is  to  be  the  mission  of  this  holy  house  and  of 
him  who  ministers  in  it.  But  while  this  fact  is  that 
which  of  necessity  must  be  most  prominent  in  our 
thoughts  to-day,  we  may  not,  on  the  other  hand,  forget  — 
nay  we  must  needs  rejoice  gratefully  to  remember  — 
those  many  links  which  connect  this  occasion  and  this 
sanctuary  with  the  land  in  which  it  is  reared,  and  with 
those  venerable  traditions  of  Galilean  Christianity  among 
which  it  finds  itself.  This  is  a  chapel,  with  a  worship 
in  the  English  tongue,  and  according  to  a  ritual  which 
to  many  a  Frenchman  is  severely  plain.  Nay,  more,  it 
is  also  true  that  as  children  of  the  Anglican  Reforma- 
tion, we  are  not  able  to  find  our  spiritual  home  in  sanc- 
tuaries which  acknowledge  that  unwarranted  claim  of 
Papal  supremacy  which  once  and  again  the  Galilean 
Church  has  so  courageously  disowned  and  resented.^ 
But  on  the  other  hand,  can  we  who  are  Churchmen  ever 
forget  that  the  Liturgy  which  England  gave  to  us  was 
substantially  the  Liturgy  which,  long  before,  France  had 
given  to  England.  A  comparison  of  the  earliest  litur- 
gical forms,  which  have  come  down  from  ancient  times, 
with  our  own  Eucharistic  office,  furnishes  strong  reasons 
for  believing  that  tJiat  primitive  use  which  toward  the 
beginning  of  the   second    century  was  introduced  into 

1  The  Gallican  Church,  Lloyd,  pp.  40,  63,  64,  78,  83,  84. 


262  Waymarks. 

Gaul  by  missionaries  from  Asia  Minor  was  the  parent, 
in  all  essential  features,  first  of  the  Anglican  Liturgy, 
and  through  that  of  our  own.^  When  toward  the  close 
of  the  sixth  century  Augustine  landed  in  England  for 
the  purpose  of  evangelizing  the  pagan  Saxons,  he  found 
that  a  church  already  existed  there  with  an  episcopate 
and  a  ritual  of  its  own,  derived  from  Gallican  sources. 
He  would  fain  have  displaced  it,  as  we  know,  with  that 
Roman  Liturgy  which  he  had  brought  with  him.  But 
with  a  wisdom  beyond  his  time,  and  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  subsequent  policy  of  the  Roman  Church,  the 
great  Gregory  to  whom  he  appealed  replied,  in  words 
which  may  well  be  the  rule  of  those  who  are  engaged 
in  the  weighty  business  of  liturgical  revision  and  en- 
richment in  our  own  day  :  — 

^'Thou,  my  brother,  art  acquainted  with  the  customs  of 
the  Roman  Church,  in  which  thou  wast  brought  up.  But  it 
is  my  pleasure  that  if  thou  hast  found  anything  which  would 
better  please  God  ...  in  the  Gallican  or  in  any  other 
church,  thou  shouldst  carefully  select  that.  .  .  .  For  things 
are  not  to  be  loved  for  the  sake  of  places,  but  places  for  the 
sake  of  good  things.  Select  therefore  from  each  church 
those  things  that  are  pious,  religious,  and  rightful;  and 
when  thou  hast  collected  them  into  one  whole,  instil  this 
into  the  minds  of  the  Angles  for  their  use." 

It  is  not  easy  to  imagine  a  more  exact  description  of 
the  origin  of  our  own  Liturgy,  —  using  that  word  both 
in  its  more  precise  and  more  general  sense,  than  such 
language.  But  while,  therefore,  we  gratefully  remember 
the  many  and  various  sources  to  which  our  American 

^  Vide  "The  Prayer  Book  :  its  History,"  etc,  Dauiel,  pp.  11,  12. 


The  American   Church  in  Paris,  263 

prayer  book  has  been  indebted,  it  belongs  to  us  here,  and 
to-day,  especially  to  call  to  mind  that  primary  source  to 
which  it  owes  so  much ;  I  mean  the  earliest  formularies 
of  Galilean  worship. 

A  living  church,  however,  is  one  which  is  marked  not 
only  by  an  orthodox  worship,  but  by  a  Scriptural 
and  evangelical  teaching.  And  how  can  we  who  are 
American  Churchmen  ever  forget  how  much  we  owe  to 
the  witness  for  God  and  His  truth,  of  that  long  line  of 
saints  and  heroes  and  martyrs,  which,  beginning  with 
that  great  prelate  and  doctor,  Iren^us,  Bishop  of  Lyons, 
runs  on  through  all  the  eventful  history  of  France, 
down  to  this  hour  ?  In  our  American  metropolis,  in 
a  sanctuary  dear  to  many  of  us  here,  there  is  a  win- 
dow which  commemorates  Saint  Martin  of  Tours,  that 
soldier  first,  and  pupil  of  Athanasius  later,  who  as  Bishop 
of  Tours  in  the  fourth  century,  by  liis  resolute  refusal  to 
join  with  the  Spanish  bishops  in  the  persecution  of  the 
heretical  Priscillianists,  taught  to  his  fellow-ecclesiastics 
and  the  whole  Christian  world  a  rare  lesson  of  religious 
toleration ;  and  who  thus,  in  an  age  which,  alas,  could 
not  understand  it,  became  a  witness  to  that  great 
principle  of  Religious  Liberty,  which,  centuries  after, 
found  its  sure  refuge  and  its  abiding  resting-place  on  our 
American  shores.  My  brethren,  as  we  rear  our  altar 
on  this  French  soil  to-day  can  we  forget  prophets  and 
apostles  such  as  these  ?  nay  more,  can  we  forget  those 
others  who  were,  if  not  all  of  them  tactually,  yet  most 
surely  spiritually  their  successors,  —  Fdn^lon  and  Pascal 
and  Lacordaire  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  Huguenot 


264  Way  marks. 

heroes  and  martyrs,  on  the  other,  who  from  age  to  age 
have  spoken  and  suffered  for  Christ  ?  Surely,  in  a 
sense  the  deepest  and  most  real  to  us  who  are  here, 
that  is  no  alien  or  foreign  soil  which  has  bred  such 
witnesses  as  these  for  our  Master  and  theirs !  Gladly 
and  gratefully  do  we  claim  our  spiritual  kinship  with 
them  all,  and  thank  God,  as  we  shall  do  presently  in 
yonder  Eucharist,  for  the  good  examples  of  all  these, 
His  servants,  and  our  brethren  in  Jesus  Christ! 

And  yet  again :  on  this  day,  dedicated  as  it  is  by  the 
chief  magistrate  of  our  country  to  the  sacred  duty  and 
privilege  of  national  thanksgiving,  —  a  day  most  happily 
chosen,  as  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me,  for  the 
consecration  of  this  American  church,  —  must  we  not 
also  gladly  recall  another  tie  which  binds  us  to  France, 
and  which  makes  our  relations  to  this  people,  in  one  as- 
pect of  them,  more  sacred  and  tender  than  to  any  other  ? 

On  an  American  Thanksgiving-day,  at  home,  as  you 
will  remember,  it  has  long  been  our  custom,  in  con- 
nection with  our  Church  services,  to  review  our  national 
history,  and  to  enumerate  the  various  occasions  for 
gratitude  or  admiration  which  such  a  review  suggests. 
Was  there  ever  more  appropriate  occasion  for  such  a 
retrospect  than  to-day  ?  —  first,  in  view  of  all  that  in  the 
happy  completion  of  this  Christian  sanctuary  we  who 
are  here  have  especially  to  be  thankful  for,  and  then  in 
view  of  the  manifold  blessings  and  the  marvellous 
prosperity  which  have  been  vouchsafed  to  our  native 
land.  Can  any  American  recognize  the  profound 
significance  of   all  that   is  coming  to  pass  in  his  own 


The  American  Church  in  Paris.  265 

country  without  an  equal  sense  of  awe  and  wonder  in 
view  of  its  august  suggestions  ?  We  are  accounted  a 
boastful  people,  easily  misled  by  the  superficial  blunder 
of  mistaking  territorial  and  numerical  bigness  for 
national  greatness ;  and  the  imputation,  in  view  of  much 
that  is  said  and  written  is  not  altogether  without  warrant. 
But  it  is  not  what  we  may  say  or  think  of  ourselves  that 
compels  us  to  recognize  the  tremendous  possibilities  of 
our  national  future,  so  much  as  what  has  been  deliber- 
ately predicted  by  others.  In  a  recent  work  on  the 
"  Possible  Future  and  the  Present  Crisis"  of  America^  I 
find  the  words  of  two  men  of  whose  calm  and  unimpas- 
sioned  judgment  of  facts,  whatever  we  may  think  of 
them  in  other  regards,  there  can  be  no  smallest  question. 
Neither  of  them  is  an  American,  nor,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  have  they  any  smallest  sympathy  with  American 
institutions  or  ideas,  but  each  of  them  represents  a  mind 
of  the  highest  rank  and  an  authority  which  in  their  several 
departments  is  supreme.  Says  one  of  these,  the  late  Mr. 
Darwin,  "  There  is  apparently  much  truth  in  the  belief 
that  the  wonderful  progress  of  the  United  States,  as 
well  as  the  character  of  the  people,  are  the  results 
of  natural  selection ;  for  the  more  energetic,  restless, 
and  courageous  men  from  all  parts  of  Europe  have 
emigrated,  during  the  last  ten  or  twelve  generations, 
to  that  great  country,  and  have  there  succeeded  best. 
Looking  at  the  distant  future,  I  do  not  think  that  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Zincher^  takes  an  exaggerated  view  when  he 

1  Our  Country,  by  Rev.  J  Strong.    New  York  :  Baker  and  Taylor. 

2  An  English  divine  and  writer. 


266  Waymarhs, 

says:  'All  other  series  of  events — as  that  which 
resulted  in  the  culture  of  mind  in  Greece,  and  that  which 
resulted  in  the  Empire  of  Rome  —  only  appear  to  have 
purpose  and  value  when  viewed  in  connection  with,  or 
rather  as  subsidiary  to,  the  great  stream  of  Anglo-Saxon 
emigration  to  the  West.' "  Wrote  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 
speaking  of  the  future  of  our  country  :  — 

'<One  great  result  is,  I  think,  tolerably  clear.  From 
biological  truths  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  the  eventual 
mixture  of  the  allied  varieties  of  the  Aryan  races  forming  the 
population  will  produce  a  more  powerful  type  of  man  than 
has  hitherto  existed,  and  a  type  of  man  more  plastic,  more 
adaptable,  more  capable  of  undergoing  the  modifications 
needful  for  complete  social  life.  I  think,  whatever  difficulties 
they  may  have  to  surmount,  and  whatever  tribulations  they 
may  have  to  pass  through,  the  Americans  may  reasonably 
look  forward  to  a  time  when  they  will  have  produced  a  civi- 
lization grander  than  any  the  world  has  known." 

And  if  it  be  objected  that  these  are  vague  and  gen- 
eral statements,  there  are  others  which  may  easily  be 
verified,  not  vague  nor  general  nor  difficult  to  under- 
stand. Here  is  one  of  them :  at  the  present  ratio  of 
increase,  another  century  will  give  to  our  country  700,- 
000,000  of  people.  Here  is  another  :  between  1870  and 
1880  the  manufactures  of  France  increased  in  value 
1230,000,000  ;  those  of  Germany,  1430,000,000 ;  those 
of  Great  Britain,  1580,000,000 ;  and  those  of  the  United 
States,  $1,030,000,000.  Or,  to  turn  from  past  growth 
to  future  possibilities,  again  :  if  you  would  get  a  con- 
ception of  the  territorial  extent  of  our  country,  take  the 
State  of  Texas  alone  and  lay  it  on  the  face  of  Europe, 


The  American  Church  in  Paris,  267 

and  this  American  "  giant,  resting  on  the  mountains  of 
Norway  on  the  north,  with  one  palm  covering  London, 
and  the  other  reaching  out  to  Warsaw,  would  stretch 
himself  across  the  kingdom  of  Denmark,  across  the  em- 
pires of  Germany  and  Austria,  across  northern  Italy, 
and  lave  his  feet  in  the  Mediterranean."  ^  And  to  add 
one  more  group  of  statistics,  perhaps  more  impressive 
than  any  other  to  a  certain  class  of  minds,  consider  the 
actual  wealth  of  the  United  States.  Great  Britain  is 
by  far  the  richest  nation  of  the  Old  World  ;  but  our 
wealth  exceeds  hers  by  1276,000,000.  From  1870  to 
1880  we  produced  1732,000,000  of  the  precious  metals 
alone  from  our  own  soil ;  and  to-day  the  $43,612,000,000 
which  is  the  estimated  wealth  of  the  United  States  is 
"  more  than  enough  to  buy  the  Russian  and  Turkish  em- 
pires, the  kingdoms  of  Sweden  and  Norway,  Denmark 
and  Italy,  together  with  Australia,  South  Africa,  and 
South  America,  —  lands,  mines,  cities,  palaces,  factories, 
ships,  flocks,  herds,  jewels,  moneys,  thrones,  sceptres, 
diadems,  and  all  the  entire  possessions  of  177,000,000 
of  people."  2  And  this  is  true  of  a  people  with  a  repub- 
lican form  of  government,  already  demonstrated  to  be 
at  once  the  most  stable  and  the  most  elastic,  and  speak- 
ing a  language  of  which  long  ago  Jacob  Grimm,  the 
German  philologist,  wrote,  "  It  seems  chosen,  like  its 
people,  to  rule  in  future  times  in  a  still  greater  degree 
in  all  the  corners  of  the  earth,"  until,  as  he  elsewhere 
predicts,  the  language  of  Shakspeare  shall  become  the 
language  of  mankind. 

1  Our  Country,  by  Rev.  J.  Strong,  p.  16.  2  ibid.,  pp.  112,  113. 


268  Way  marks. 

This  is  the  marvellous  present  and  the  marvellous  fu- 
ture of  our  country,  as  others,  not  we, have  described  them. 
But  can  we  forget,  I  ask  again,  the  events  in  which  this 
greatness  took  its  rise  ?  Wrote  Count  d'Aranda,  after 
signing  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1773,  to  his  sovereign,  the 
King  of  Spain  :  "  This  federal  republic  is  born  a  pygmy  ; 
...  a  day  will  come  when  it  will  be  a  giant."  But 
would  the  pygmy  ever  have  come  to  its  birth  at  all  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  outstretched  hand  of  France, 
and  the  timely  help  of  Lafayette  and  those  who  were 
his  brave  associates  ?  Can  we  who  are  Americans  ever 
cease  to  remember  those  whose  brave  and  heroic  sup- 
port when,  so  far  as  all  other  sympathy  or  countenance 
were  concerned,  we  stood  alone  made  it  possible  that  our 
republic  should  survive  its  baptism  of  blood  and  live  to 
take  its  place  among  the  nations  of  the  earth  ?  Surely, 
as  we  consecrate  this  house  to-day  and  lift  to  heaven  our 
grateful  praises  for  the  blessings  which  are  ours  here 
and  our  fellow-countrymen's  at  home,  we  may  not  forget 
that  they  were  Frenchmen  who  at  the  first  made  possible 
all  that  has  since  then  come  to  pass. 

And  so,  as  we  dedicate  this  house  to  God  and  His 
glory  and  honor,  I  would  lift  this  prayer  for  the  people 
among  whom  it  is  reared  :  May  God  bless  the  French 
republic  and  all  who  dwell  within  her  borders.  May  the 
two  great  peoples  —  theirs  and  ours  —  go  forward  hand 
in  hand,  not  merely  in  material  prosperity,  but  in  that 
righteousness  which  alone  exalteth  a  nation.  May  yonder 
doors  stand  ever  open  to  welcome  all  who  may  long  for 
the  message  and  the  help  of  Him  who  came  to  incarnate 


The  American  Church  in  Paris.  269 

that  righteousness,  to  tell  the  world  of  the  true  brother- 
hood of  man,  and  to  reveal  in  His  own  person  the  only 
service  in  which  there  is  perfect  freedom  and  perfect 
fraternity.  There  are  aching  and  empty  hearts  in  this 
great  and  glittering  capital.  May  this  be  the  refuge  in 
which,  whatever  tongue  they  speak,  not  a  few  of  them 
may  find  at  once  pardon  and  hope  and  peace.  And  so 
from  these  portals  may  there  never  cease  to  stream  forth 
to  bless  and  illumine  mankind  the  clear  and  steadfast 
hght  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  French  munificence 
has  lately  reared  its  stately  gift,  with  flashing  torch  up- 
lifted, at  the  portal  of  the  metropolis  of  our  Western 
World ;  and  to-day  we  place  here  a  gift  to  France,  not 
less  costly  and  not  less  helpful  surely,  to  fling  o'er  all 
this  tangled  skein  of  modern  continental  life  a  light  like 
none  that  "  ever  was  on  land  or  sea,"  —  the  light  of  Him 
who  said,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world ;  he  that  follow- 
eth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness."  God  keep  it  bright ! 
God  make  it  to  shine  clear  and  strong  and  steadfast ! 

My  dear  brother,^  this  is  a  happy  and  blessed  day  for 
you.  May  I  not  in  the  presence  of  this  your  flock  offer 
to  you,  and  through  you  to  them,  the  congratulations 
that  are  glowing  in  many  hearts  to-day  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic  ?  I  account  myself  happy  that  it  has  fallen 
to  my  lot  to  be  the  bearer  of  those  congratulations,  and 
to  tell  you  how  glad  and  happy  are  we  of  that  Diocese  of 
New  York  from  which  I  come,  in  view  of  the  success 
which  has  crowned  your  efforts.  In  that,  your  mother 
diocese,  and  in  the  parish  in  which  it  was  once  my 
^  The  preacher  here  addressed  the  rector. 


270  Waymarks. 

privilege  to  serve,  you  first  received  your  commission  as 
a  minister  of  Jesus  Christ.  With  that  diocese  you  are 
still,  as  a  presbyter,  canonically  connected,  even  as  from 
it  —  as  I  know  you  gratefully  remember  —  you  have  re- 
ceived again  and  again  munificent  assistance  in  the  task 
of  which  to-day  we  commemorate  the  completion.  What 
a  noble  completion  it  is  !  They  who  have  come  here 
this  morning  are  witnesses  of  the  consummation  of  a 
work  which  has  cost  you  and  your  people  more  anxious 
hours  than  any  but  you  yourselves  can  know.  May  I 
not  tell  you  for  myself  and  this  whole  congregation  how 
much  we  honor  you  for  the  rare  courage  with  which  you 
and  those  who  have  stood  by  you  have  toiled  and  striven 
and  waited  ?  In  the  completion  of  this  noble  church  a 
work  has  been  accomplished  whose  influence,  1  believe, 
we  who  are  gathered  here  can  only  imperfectly  conceive. 
But  be  it  greater  or  less  than  we  anticipate,  nothing  can 
dim  the  record  of  that  steadfast  faith  and  that  unwearied 
patience  with  which  you  and  yours  have  labored.  May 
God  make  this  "  psalm  incorporate  in  stone  "  a  daily 
consolation  and  inspiration  to  you  and  them  in  all  the 
work  that  lies  before  you  !  May  He  help  you  to  witness 
for  Him  in  this  pulpit  and  to  minister  before  Him  at 
yonder  altar ;  and  so,  out  and  up  from  psalm  and  sacra- 
ment and  sermons,  may  you  and  your  flock,  with  Jacob 
at  Peniel,  climb  into  closer  fellowship  with  Him  to 
whose  honor  this  holy  house  is  reared,  until  yours  too 
and  theirs  shall  be  the  pilgrim's  vision  and  the  pilgrim's 
cry,  —  "  This  is  none  other  but  the  house  of  God,  and 
this  is  the  gate  of  heaven." 


INTRODUCTORY  TO  THE  POWERS  AND   THE 
POWER   OF   THE   EPISCOPATE. 

The  history  of  the  Ejjiscopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
would  be  very  imperfectly  told,  if  it  did  not  record  the  re- 
markable services  of  its  missionary  Episcopate.  The  exi- 
gencies of  sparsely  settled  regions  in  the  West  and  Southwest, 
where  the  Church  was  largely  unknown,  and  where  without  a 
supporting  constituency  it  was  impossible  to  organize  dioceses, 
made  it  necessary  to  provide  for  an  oversight  and  adminstra- 
tion  which  should  also  unite  with  it  much  of  the  work  of  the 
pioneer  and  the  missionary.  To  this  end,  in  the  year  1835, 
the  Church  chose  its  first  missionary  Bishop,  the  gallant 
and  lion-hearted  Kemper,  and  sent  him  to  be  Bishop  of 
Missouri  and  Indiana.  His  jurisdiction  in  fact  included 
almost  the  whole  Northwest,  and  for  nearly  twenty  years, 
and  until  elected  Bishop  of  Wisconsin,  he  gave  himself  to 
his  work  with  contagious  and  undiscouraged  enthusiasm. 

Bishop  Kemper  was  the  first  in  a  succession  of  missionary 
Bishops  who  have  been  among  the  best  gifts  of  the 
American  Church.  Among  them  have  been  Scott  of 
Oregon,  Randall  of  Colorado,  and  their  like,  in  earlier  days, 
and  Lay  and  Robert  Elliott  and  their  like,  in  later,  all  now 
gone  to  their  reward,  while  among  the  living  are  men  to 
whose  wisdom,  energy,  and  self-sacrifice  the  Church  will  find 
itself  increasingly  indebted  as  the  years  go  on. 

Among  these  it  is  no  disparagement  to  others  to  say  that 
the  name  of  the  first  missionary  Bishop  of  Nebraska,  Dr. 
Robert  Harper  Clarkson,  will  always  stand  pre-eminent.  Of 
border  ancestry  (he  was  born  in  182G,    in  Gettysburg,   Pa., 


272  Way  f narks. 

near  the  Maryland  line)  Dr.  Clarkson  united  in  himself  the 
vigor  of  the  North  and  the  sunny  charm  of  the  South.  Of 
gentle  birth  and  lineage,  a  college-bred  man,  with  a  sincere 
love  of  letters,  he  was  always  and  everywhere  a  man  of  the 
people,  and  he  was  able  to  unite  in  himself  the  most  unbend- 
ing loyalty  to  the  traditions  of  the  Church  whose  son  he  Was 
with  the  kindliest  and  largest  sympathies  toward  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  men.  In  its  early  history  in  the  West  the 
Church  had  no  easy  task.  It  found  itself  in  communities 
which  were  usually  not  so  much  hostile  to  it  as  good- 
naturedly  contemptuous  or  indifferent.  It  was  almost 
utterly  unknown,  and  its  historic  claim,  to  those  bred  of 
Puritan  ancestry,  or  with  equal  disesteem  and  distaste  for 
any  other  than  a  highly  emotional  type  of  religious  teaching 
and  worship,  presented,  practically,  almost  no  points  of  con- 
tact. It  was  the  calling  —  no  easy  one  —  of  the  missionary 
Bishop  and  his  clergy  to  create  these,  —  to  establish  the 
entente  cordiale,  and  then  hj  means  of  it  to  make  men  love 
the  Church  and  her  services  because  they  had  learned  to  love 
and  trust  the  men  who  brought  them  to  them. 

In  this  work  Bishop  Clarkson  was  a  prince-Bishop, 
certainly  not  because  of  the  state  in  which  he  lived  or 
travelled,  —  the  Apostle  who  was  a  tent-maker  was  hardly 
more  familiar  with  hardships  than  this  his  true  successor,  — 
but  because  his  nobility  of  speech  and  service  won  upon  all  to 
whom  he  came.  The  present  Diocese  of  Nebraska,  with  its 
Cathedral,  Churches,  and  schools,  is  his  worthy  monument  j 
and  when,  all  too  soon,  the  time  came  for  one  who  had  worn 
himself  out  in  the  service  to  rest  from  his  labors,  he  left  a 
large  and  strongly  rooted  work  behind  him. 

To  succeed  him  in  the  charge  of  that  work  the  Diocese  of 
Nebraska  called,  in  the  j^ear  1885,  a  man  who  was  like-minded; 
and  it  was  the  happy  privilege  of  one  who  had  known  him  in 
his  earliest  ministry,  and  who  had  learned  then  to  recognize 
his  earnest  and  devout  character  and  his  fervid  missionary 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.         273 

spirit,  to  preach  on  the  occasion  of  his  consecration  on 
Saint  Matthias'  Da}^,  Feb.  24,  1885,  in  St.  John's  Church, 
Detroit,  Mich.,  the  sermon  which  here  follows.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  since  then  the  Diocese  of  Nebraska  has  become 
two  jurisdictions,  over  the  larger  and  newer  of  which  a 
missionary  Bishop  has  been  placed,  —  the  successor  of  Bishop 
Clarkson,  the  Right  Rev.  Dr.  George  Worthington,  still 
continuing  Bishop  of  Nebraska. 


18 


XVI. 

THE  POWERS  AND  THE  POWER  OF  THE 
EPISCOPATE. 

In  entering  upon  the  task  which  has  been  assigned  to 
me  this  morning,  I  may  not  refrain  from  recognizing  the 
obvious  inappropriateness,  from  one  point  of  view  at  any 
rate,  of  my  attempting  to  discharge  it.  Whatever  may 
be  fitting  on  other  occasions,  it  would  seem  as  if  there 
could  be  little  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  is  fitting 
here.  It  belongs  to  age  and  experience  in  the  Episcopal 
Office,  and  not  to  comparative  youth  and  inexperience, 
to  inculcate  those  lessons  which  are  appropriate  to  this 
hour  and  to  those  august  solemnities  to  which  we  are  in 
a  little  while  to  proceed.  It  belongs  to  a  large  and 
varied  Episcopal  service  to  tell  the  people  what  are  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  Episcopal  Office,  and  to 
tell  this,  our  brother  elected,  how  best  he  may  discharge 
them.  And  in  length  of  service  and  in  largeness  of 
experience  your  preacher  is  equally  poor.  Himself  a 
novice,  called  little  more  than  a  twelve-month  since  to 
take  up  those  large  tasks  which  to-day  are  to  be  laid 
upon  another,  he  might  well  have  come  here,  not  to 
speak,  but  to  listen,  content  to  remember  that,  as 
always  in  the  college  of  the   Episcopate,  so  here  pre- 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        275 

eminently  it  is  the  office  of  "  them  that  are  elders " 
among  us  to  teach  and  to  admonish. 

But  if  I  had  not  been  constrained  by  the  force  of  that 
triple  command  which  has  been  laid  upon  me,  by  our 
venerable  and  beloved  Presiding  Bishop,  by  the  Bishop 
of  this  diocese,  and  by  our  brother  this  day  to  be  con- 
secrated, I  might  venture  to  remind  myself  of  a  usage 
of  our  Mother  Church  in  connection  with  occasions 
such  as  this,  not  without  advantages  which  might  make 
it  worthy  of  imitation  among  us.  The  preacher  at  the 
consecration  of  a  Bishop  in  the  Church  of  England  is 
not  a  bishop,  but  a  presbyter  ;  and  the  custom  has  at 
least  this  merit,  that  it  affords  opportunity  for  setting 
forth  the  office  and  work  of  a  Bishop  from  a  standpoint 
without,  rather  than  within.  Doubtless  they  best  know 
the  duties  and  obligations  of  a  Bishop's  Office  who  have 
long  borne  them,  and  the  most  intelligent  standing- 
ground  in  judging  of  any  calling,  and  its  responsibilities 
is  not  without,  but  within.  Yet,  as  in  other  things,  so 
here  it  must  needs  be  of  advantage,  sometimes  at  any 
rate,  to  look  at  the  office  and  vocation  of  a  Bishop  as 
those  look  at  it  who  stand  apart  from  it,  not  as 
unfriendly  critics,  but  as  friendly  and  filial  observers. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  and  with  this  purpose,  then,  that  I 
venture  to  ask  your  attention.  Pray,  with  me,  that 
another  Wisdom  than  my  own  may  guide  and  restrain 
and  enlighten  me  ! 

In  the  tenth  chapter  of  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel,  at  the 
first  verse,  and  in  the  first  chapter  of  Saint  Paul's  Second 
Epistle  to  Timotliy,  at  the  sixth  and  seventh  verses, 
there  occur  respectively  those  words :  — 


276  Waymarks, 

^' And  when  He  had  called  unto  Him  His  twelve  Apostles, 
He  gave  them  power." 

''Wherefore  I  put  thee  in  remembrance  that  thou  stir  up 
the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of  my 
hands.  For  God  hath  not  given  to  us  the  spirit  of  fear  5  but 
of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind." 

There  are  two  views  of  such  an  occasion  as  that  which 
assembles  us  to-day,  equally  familiar,  if  not  equally 
accepted.  The  one  is  that  an  office-bearer  in  the 
Church  of  God  who  has  been  tried  and  tested  in  an 
inferior  post  of  duty  is  to  be  advanced  to  a  higher,  and 
that,  in  connection  with  such  promotion  or  advancement 
he  is  to  be  clothed  with  new  dignities  and  entrusted 
with  new  powers.  In  this  view  the  analogies  of  secular 
life  and  civil  or  municipal  office-bearing  occur  at  once 
to  our  minds.  Here  is  a  servant  of  the  State,  who,  by 
the  suffrages  of  his  fellow-citizens,  or  the  appointment  of 
the  executive,  has  been  chosen  to  some  responsible 
office.  As  he  comes  to  its  threshold  there  are  certain 
ceremonies  of  initiation,  or  some  formal  oaths  and 
declarations,  by  which  he  is  to  become  legally  qualified 
for  his  new  place  and  admitted  to  its  duties.  All 
through  our  civil  and  military  systems  of  government, 
and  wisely,  there  runs  some  law  or  usage  looking  to  this 
end  and  providing  for  its  accomplishment.  Yesterday 
our  fellow-citizen  was  only  our  fellow-citizen,  and  no 
more.  To-day  he  has  been  chosen,  it  may  be,  for  some 
high  and  honorable  office.  To-morrow,  perhaps,  he  will 
take  the  oath  of  his  office  and  enter  upon  the  discharge 
of  its  duties.     And  in  doing  so  there  will  come  to  him 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate*        277 

the  right,  not  merely  to  draw  his  salary  and  to  assume 
an  official  title,  but  to  exercise  certain  powers  which  are 
inherent  in  the  nature  of  his  office,  or  have  been  con- 
ferred upon  it  by  enactment  of  law.  He  may  appoint 
certain  subordinates,  he  may  veto  certain  proposed 
enactments,  he  may  pardon  certain  criminals,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  all  these  powers  he  may  be  largely,  if 
not  solely,  responsible  to  himself,  to  his  own  conscience, 
and  only  indirectly  to  his  coadjutors  in  the  business  of 
government,  or  to  the  people. 

Now,  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  there  is  a  very  close 
analogy  in  many  respects  between  powers  thus  con- 
ferred and  those  with  which  our  brother  is  to  be  en- 
trusted this  day.  The  Church  is  in  the  world  as  an 
organization ;  as  a  Divine  organization,  it  is  true,  and 
with  obligations  not  so  much  secular  and  legal  as  they 
are  moral  and  spiritual, — but  still,  as  an  organization. 
Not  as  a  disembodied  spirit,  but  as  a  visible  kingdom 
or  society  is  it  bidden  to  go  forward  to  its  work.  And 
in  this  organized  and  visible  society  there  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  those  who  administer  its  laws  and  confer  its 
authority  and  execute  its  discipline.  There  must  be 
office-bearers,  as  well  as  an  office  to  be  borne.  There 
must  be  those  who  commission,  as  well  as  those  who  are 
commissioned.  There  must  be  overseers,  as  well  as 
work  and  workers  to  be  overseen.  And  in  all  these 
various  functions  and  relations  there  must  be  a  right 
distribution  of  responsibility,  and  a  law  of  due  submis- 
sion and  subordination  to  duly  constituted  and  rightful 
authority. 


278  Waymarks^ 

And  hence  there   arises,   the   moment  we  come  to 
speak  of   the   Episcopate,  the  question  of   its  powers. 
We  cannot  admit  the  existence  of  such  an  office  as  that 
of  a  Bishop  in  the  Church  of  God  without  admitting 
also  that  along  with  the  office  there  must  go  a  certain 
definite  authority   and   certain  specific  powers.     If  we 
believe  (as  most  surely  we  do  believe,  or  else  we  have 
no  business  to  be  here)   that  the  office  is  not  one  of 
human  invention,  but,  howsoever  gradually,  as  some  may 
believe,  taking  on  its  more  definite  and  specific  form,  of 
Divine  origin  and  institution,  then  we  must  needs  be- 
lieve that,  as  in  the  beginning  the  Divine  Founder  of 
the  Church   gave  to   His  Apostles  certain   inalienable 
powers,  so  He  has  willed  that  something  answering  to 
these  powers  is  to  remain  with  those  who  shall  come 
after  them.     They  were  to  set  in  order  the  things  that 
remained  unorganized.     They  were  to  ordain  elders  in 
every  city.     They   were  to  set  apart  those   others  who 
were  to  serve  tables.     They  were  to  confirm  the  souls 
of  the  baptized  by  the  laying  on  of  hands.     They  were 
to  decide  questions  of  worship  and  of   discipline,  not 
alone,  indeed,  nor  without  mutual  counsel.     They  were 
to  serve,  but  they  were  also   to  rule.     They  were   to 
preach,  but   they  were   also   to   commission   others   to 
preach.     In   a  word,  over  all   that   infant  energy  and 
activity  of  the  new  faith,  they  were  to  be  Iitigko'ttoi  — 
overseers  —  leading  and  governing,  ordaining  and  con- 
firming, correcting  and  restraining  those  whom  Christ 
and  His  Church  had  entrusted  to  their  care.     Such,  in 
brief,  were  the  powers  to  be  exercised,  all  of  them,  let 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        279 

us  never  forget,  under  the  guidance  and  inspiration  of 
the  seven-fold  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  Avhich  the 
Master  clothed  His  first  Apostles ;  and  such  are  the 
powers  of  those  who  to-day,  however  unworthy,  are  in 
a  very  real  sense  their  successors. 

And  if  we  ask,  Where  now  are  we  to  look,  in  this  our 
own  age  and  Church  for  a  more  specific  definition  of 
these  powers  ?  the  answer  is,  to  custom,  to  canon  law, 
and  supremely  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Some  things  are 
matters  of  usage,  others  are  defined  by  precise  enact- 
ment of  canon  law,  and  behind  all  these  is  the  voice 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  as  it  speaks  to  us  from  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament.  When  in  the  book  of  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles  we  read  how,  to  the  Church  at  Antioch, 
"  the  Holy  Ghost  said,  separate  me  Paul  and  Barnabas 
for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them,"  we  get  a 
clear  and  explicit  point  of  departure,  in  the  light  of 
which  we  may  read  all  that  follows.  As,  step  by  step, 
the  little  handful  of  believers  grows  and  multiplies  and 
disperses  itself  abroad,  as  that  expectant  company  in 
the  upper  room  is  enlarged  till  it  becomes  a  fully  organ- 
ized and  aggressive  Christian  society,  we  see  how,  step 
by  step,  the  new  powers  were  ordained  to  match  the 
new  responsibilities,  and  how  the  freedom  and  infor- 
mality of  an  earlier  and  cruder  condition  of  things  gave 
place  to  one  in  which,  as  with  the  deacon  and  presbyter, 
each  had  his  separate  work  and  was  clothed  with  his 
several  powers ;  so  with  that  other,  who,  father  and 
brother  to  all  the  rest,  was  set  over  them  in  the  Lord 
with  the  heavy  burden,  but  no  less  with  the  definite 
powers,  of  the  Episcopate. 


280  Waymarks. 

And  yet,  when  we  have  said  all  this,  and  I  think  you 
will  own  that  I  have  striven  to  say  it  with  entire  candor 
and  explicitness,  is  it  not  true  that  there  remains  some- 
thing more  to  be  said  ?     We  turn  back  to  that  first  com- 
mission of  which  we  read  in  the  words  just  quoted  to 
you  from  Saint  Matthew's  Gospel.     And  what  a  signifi- 
cant picture  is  that  which  it  summons  before  us !     The 
men  who  were  commissioned  there  were  bidden  to  do 
the  mightiest  works  which  the  world  had  ever  seen : 
"  Heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  lepers,  cast  out  devils,  raise 
the  dead."     This  was  their  Lord's  command.     Well,  as 
we  know,  they  obeyed  it.     Up  and  down  that  slumbrous, 
sin-burdened  world  of  theirs  they  went  and  preached, 
and  wrought,  and  healed.     And  all  the  while  it  was  not 
their   powers  —  canonical,    ecclesiastical,   Episcopal  — 
that  made  them  strong,  but  their  power.     "  And  when 
He  called  unto  Him  His  twelve  Disciples  He  gave  them 
power."     I  do  not  forget  that  the  word  in  the  original 
means   more   precisely   "  authority ; "    but  there   could 
have  been  no  real  and  constraining  authority  if  there 
had   not  been  behind  it   a  human    personality  thrilled 
through   and   through    with    a   divine   and    irresistible 
power.     And  so  when  we  turn  from  the  commission  of 
Christ  to  the  twelve  to  that   other  commission  of  the 
aged  Apostle  to  the   Gentiles  to  his  son  in  the  faith, 
Timothy,  we  see  that  in  substance  and  spirit  the  two 
are  one :  "  Wherefore  I  put  thee  in  remembrance  that 
thou  stir  up  the  gift  of  God,  wliich  is  in  thee  by  the 
putting  on  of  my  hands.     For  God  hath  not  given  to  us 
the  spirit  of  fear ;  but  of  power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a 
sound  mind." 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Upiscopate.        281 

Men  and  brethren!  The  powers  of  the  Episcopate 
are  one  thing ;  the  power  of  the  Episcopate  is  quite  an- 
other. Need  I  say  that  I  do  not  forget  that  in  every 
Episcopal  office  and  function,  the  presumption  is  that 
that  which  is  done  is  done  under  the  guidance,  and  in 
submission  j;o,  the  teaching  and  moving  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?  But  alas  !  it  does  not  need  much  read- 
ing of  history  to  remind  us  that  men  may  be  admitted 
into  the  highest  offices  of  the  Church  of  God,  concern- 
ing whom  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  nothing  in  their 
lives  or  teaching  gave  any  smallest  evidence  that  they 
had  so  much  as  heard  whether  there  be  any  Holy  Ghost ; 
and  while  we  may  well  rejoice  that  sucli  dark  pages  in 
the  Churcli's  life  belong  mainly  to  its  past,  we  may  not 
forget  that  in  every  age  of  the  Church  and  in  every  of- 
fice of  the  ministry,  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  con- 
fuse its  powers  and  its  power,  —  to  mistake  the  assertion 
or  the  exercise  of  the  one  for  the  mighty  and  transcend- 
ent spell  of  the  other;  in  one  word,  to  mistake  that 
which  is  in  the  voice  of  authority  for  that  which  is  the 
far  mightier  constraint  of  example,  of  wisdom,  of  love. 

It  is  a  mistake  which  we  cannot  too  strongly  or  too 
strenuously  deprecate.  A  Bishop  may  not  verily  forget 
that  which  is  due  to  his  office  (though  he  can  very  well 
afford  not  to  be  over-sensitive  as  to  that  which  is  due  to 
himself),  and  he  may  as  little  dis-esteem  or  neglect  those 
duly-regulated  powers  which  the  Church  has  put  in  his 
keeping,  not  to  rust,  but  to  use.  But  he  may  wisely 
remember  that  the  frequent  assertion  of  prerogative  is 
the  surest  road  to  its  resistance,  —  that  even  the  solemn 


282  Waymarks. 

dignity  of  the  Episcopate  may  easily  be  in  danger  of 
the  "  vain  conceit  of  officialism,"  and  that  the  genius  of 
an  ecclesiastical  martinet  is  the  last  spell  with  which, 
in  an  age  when,  whether  rightly  or  no,  men  cannot  be 
hindered  from  reading  and  thinking  for  themselves,  a 
bishop  may  attempt  to  conjure. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  power  of  the  Episcopate, 
real  and  mighty  and  lasting,  and  it  is  the  power  — 

(a)  First  of  all,  of  personal  character.  The  phrase 
may  sound  indefinite,  but  I  think  you  see  with  me  what 
it  stands  for.  In  every  other  relation  of  life  there  are 
men  who  are  influential  for  good,  not  because  they  have 
been  lifted  to  a  great  place,  but  because  they  fill  a 
great  place,  as  they  would  have  filled  a  smaller  one, 
with  a  substantive,  stainless,  and  righteous  manhood. 
They  are  known  to  speak  the  truth,  and  to  live  it,  as 
well  as  to  speak  it.  They  are  known  for  their  constancy 
to  duty,  and  to  do  it  at  every  hazard.  Whatsoever  things 
are  pure  and  honest  and  lovely  and  of  good  report,  they 
not  only  think  on  these  things,  but  daily  and  habitually 
illustrate  them.  They  fill  their  place  in  the  world,  not 
in  a  spirit  of  self-seeking,  but  in  large-hearted  love  and 
sacrifice  for  the  welfare  of  other  men.  They  are  not 
swerved  from  the  right  by  the  clamor  of  any  partisanship, 
or  the  sneer  of  any  critic.  Day  by  day  they  lift  their 
lives  into  the  clear  light  of  those  eternal  moral  sanctions 
that  stream  from  the  throne  of  God,  and  strive  to  live 
them  in  that  light.  Infirmities  of  temper,  errors  of 
judgment,  imperfections  of  intellectual  attainment  they 
may  have. ;  but  all  that  they  are  and  do  is  ennobled  by 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        283 

a  lofty  purpose  and  adorned  by  a  stainless  integrity. 
And  these  men,  wherever  you  find  them  in  any  earthly 
community,  are  pre-eminently  its  men  of  power.  The 
multitude  may  not  follow  them,  but  it  secretly  trusts 
and  respects  them.  Their  fellows  may  not  applaud 
them,  but  they  do  profoundly  believe  in  them.  And 
when  any  crisis  comes  —  when  truth  falleth  in  the 
streets  and  equity  cannot  enter  —  these  are  the  men  to 
w^hom  the  world  turns  to  restore  its  lost  ideals  of  truth 
and  goodness  and  righteousness,  and  to  lead  it  back  to 
the  light. 

And  what  is  true  of  men  in  every  other  relation  of 
life  is  true  of  that  sacred  office  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned to-day.  Yerily,  in  him  who  is  to  be  a  Bishop  in 
the  Church  of  God  we  want  a  sound  and  adequate  and 
(it  cannot  be  inappropriate  to  these  days  to  remember) 
a  many-sided  learning,  a  strong  and  clear  faith,  a  stead- 
fast and  burning  zeal ;  but  first  of  all  and  before  all,  as 
the  soil  in  which  these  and  all  other  kindred  graces  are 
to  flourish,  we  want  a  strong  and  substantive  personal 
character. 

{h)  But  again  :  the  power  of  the  Episcopate  resides,  I 
submit  also,  in  a  judicious  admixture  of  the  paternal  and 
fraternal  spirit.  In  a  letter  of  Saint  Augustine,  Bishop 
of  Hippo,  written  to  the  presbyter  whom  Christendom 
knows  as  Jerome,  there  occur  these  words :  "  And 
indeed,  1  beg  that  you  would,  from  time  to  time,  correct 
me  when  you  see  plainly  that  I  need  it.  For  although, 
according  to  the  titles  of  honors  which  the  usage  of 
the    Church   has   now   established,   the    Episcopate    is 


284  Waymarks. 

greater  than  the  Presbytery,  yet  in  many  respects 
Augustine  is  inferior  to  Jerome,  though  correction  from 
any  manner  of  inferior  ought  not  to  be  avoided  or  dis- 
dained." Ah  !  with  what  a  spellof  power  must  he  have 
taught  and  ruled  who  could  so  empty  himself  of  merely 
official  superiority  to  one  who  was  still  liis  brother.  If 
clergymen  have,  ordinarily,  any  one  sentiment  of  which 
they  would,  I  confidently  believe,  most  eagerly  be  rid, 
it  is  that  difference  of  ecclesiastical  rank  puts  an  end  to 
fraternal  intercourse.  That  fatherly  relation  between 
the  bishop  and  his  presbyters,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  gracious  things  in  the  organic  life  of  the 
Church,  would  be  a  far  mightier  power  if  it  could  always 
be  brightened  and  warmed  by  another  relation  not  so 
much  fatherly  as  brotherly.  There  is  a  frank  and 
generous  confidence,  there  is  a  cordial  and  willing  de- 
pendence, there  is  a  wise  distrust  of  one's  own  judgment, 
there  is  a  deference  to  another's  opinion,  which  are 
signs,  not  of  weakness,  but  of  strength.  And  in  and 
through  all  the  often  sad  and  painful  business  of  admin- 
istering reproof  or  discipline,  or  conveying  admonition  or 
dissent,  it  is  possible  to  weave  a  golden  thread  of  loving 
brotherhood  which  shall  at  once  transform  and  illumine 
the  whole.  "  Rebuke  not  an  elder,  but  entreat  him  as 
a  father,  and  the  younger  men  as  brethren."  Inspired 
words,  indeed,  which  may  we  never  consent  to  forget ! 

{c)  Once  more  :  the  power  of  the  Episcopate  will  be 
found  to  consist,  I  think,  not  a  little  in  its  open-minded- 
ness.  It  is  a  misfortune  of  that  training  which  one 
acquires   in  parochial  duties,  that  it  rarely  involves  a 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        285 

collision  with  minds  that  view  what  may  be  called 
"  burning  questions "  from  other  standpoints  than  our 
own.  The  man  who  is  called  to  the  Episcopate  is  usu- 
ally one  who  is  summoned  from  the  care  of  a  large  and 
well-organized  city  parish.  But  such  parishes  are  usually 
made  up  of  those  who  are  drawn  to  a  particular  ministry 
by  their  sympathy  with  its  views  and  modes  of  thought. 
And  a  minister  thus  environed  by  a  congenial  and  like- 
minded  people,  encounters  little  that  educates  him  to 
recognize  the  existence,  even,  of  other  opinions  than  his 
own.  He  hears  of  them,  reads  of  them,  it  is  true  ;  but 
oftener  than  otherwise  it  is  apt  to  be  through  the 
medium  of  books  and  periodicals  written  or  edited  by 
those  in  sympathy  with  his  own  views.  From  such  a 
training  he  emerges  to  deal,  it  may  be,  with  men,  many 
of  whom  are  his  peers  in  learning,  years,  and  intelligence, 
and  whose  rights  within  the  Church  are  no  less  than  his 
own.  To  recognize  those  rights  and  to  be  just  to  them 
is  no  easy  task.  To  remember  that  the  Church  is  a 
church  and  not  a  sect,  a  whole  and  not  a  fragment. 
Catholic  before  all,  and  therefore  not  Anglican,  or  Evan- 
gelical, or  Protestant,  merely, — this  is  something  that 
belongs  pre-eminently  to  one  who  would  exercise  the  true 
power  of  the  Episcopate  in  days  like  these.  I  would  not 
be  misunderstood  here,  and  I  will  not  be.  For  that 
loose-jointed  optimism  which  accounts  one  man's  credo 
as  good  as  another's,  which  disregards  or  dis-esteems 
the  sacred  obligation  of  the  Church's  historic  formularies, 
which  forgets  that  before  the  life  that  is  to  be  lived  there 
is  not  only  a  faith,  but  the  Faith  to  be  kept,  I  have  tlie 


286  Waymarhs. 

scantiest  respect.  But  we  may  not  forget  that,  as  in  Apos- 
tolic days  there  was  the  Pauline  and  the  Petrine  presen- 
tation of  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  and  in  later  days  the 
theology  of  a  Clement  of  Alexandria  on  the  one  hand,  and 
of  an  Augustine  on  the  other,  so  ever  since  then  there 
have  been  those  great  schools  of  thought  and  opinion  in 
the  Church,  neither  of  which  I  believe  may  wisely  exist 
without  the  other,  and  to  welcome  whose  activities  a  wise 
Bishop  may  well  desire  that  he  may  have  that  breadth  of 
vision  and  that  openness  and  candor  of  mind  which  shall 
freely  acknowledge  their  right  to  be,  and  if  so,  their 
right  to  think  and  to  speak. 

{d)  There  is  one  other  element  of  power  in  the 
Episcopate,  which,  though  I  name  it  last,  may  well  be 
accounted  the  first  and  chief  of  all.  It  is  consecration, 
—  the  unreserved  devotion  of  one's  whole  powers,  soul, 
body,  and  spirit,  to  the  work  of  his  high  office.  It  is  for 
this  that  our  brother  is  here  to-day,  and  that  fresh  gift 
of  himself  to  God  which  we  ask  of  him  in  these  solemn 
services,  it  is  his  to  make  day  by  day  through  all  the 
months  and  years  of  service  that  are  before  him.  It  is 
for  this  that  we  ask  for  him  the  seven-fold  gifts  of  God 
the  Holy  Ghost,  that,  quickened  by  that  mightiest 
Power,  he  may  keep  nothing  back  from  the  service  of 
Christ  and  His  Church.  Happily  a  bishop  in  our 
branch  of  the  Church  is  largely  emancipated  from  those 
claims,  partly  of  the  State  and  partly  of  what  is  called 
"  society,"  which  press  upon  him  in  other  lands.  But 
none  the  less  is  he  in  danger  of  that  secular  spirit  which 
spends  itself  in  matters  of  secondary  importance  and  is 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        287 

engrossed  in  details  of  mere  worldly  business.  It  is  true 
that  even  a  bishop  may  not  unduly  neglect  these ;  but 
to  hold  himself  to  his  high  office  as  a  chief  shepherd 
of  the  flock,  is  he  pre-eminently  called.  And  this 
calling  he  can  liope  to  fulfil  only  as  he  brings  his  gifts, 
his  office,  his  powers,  day  by  day  to  the  feet  of  his 
Master,  and  by  the  surrender  of  self-will,  by  that 
hearkening  of  the  spiritual  ear  which  listens  for  the 
voice  of  God,  by  a  spirit  of  unselfish  devotion  which 
shames  the  careless  and  the  idle  in  his  flock,  by  love 
unfeigned,  and  by  a  meekness  and  patience  that  are  not 
merely  long-suffering,  but  inexhaustible,  shows  himself 
to  be  possessed  by  that  new  manhood,  that  regenerated 
heart  and  will,  which  shall  enable  him  to  say,  "  Not  I, 
but  Christ  who  dwelleth  in  me  ! " 

Such  are  some  of  the  elements  of  power  in  the  Epis- 
copate. There  are  others,  but  I  may  not  stay  to  enu- 
merate them,  nor  do  you  need  that  they  should  here  be 
recapitulated.  They  cannot  altogether  take  the  place 
of  outward  authority,  of  canonical  provisions,  empower- 
ments, and  the  like,  but,  breathing  through  them  all, 
the  Spirit  behind  the  form,  the  purpose  above  the 
commission,  they  are,  I  think  we  must  own,  the  spell 
and  secret  of  mightiest  influence  and  most  enduring 
work. 

It  is  such  power  that  I  pray  may  be  yours,  my  brother, 
as  you  take  up  the  tasks  and  burdens  that  are  to-day  to 
be  laid  upon  you.  If  I  do  not  congratulate  you  on  as- 
suming them,  it  is  not  because  I  do  not  thank  God  that 
you  have  been  called  to  the  office  of  bishop,  nor  because 


288  Waymarks. 

I  do  not  rejoice  that  the  Church  is  to  have  in  that  office 
the  benefit  of  your  ripe  experience  and  your  earnest  and 
devout  Christian  character.  But  I  know  your  work 
here,  and  how  dear  it  must  needs  be  to  you ;  and  I 
know,  even  better  than  yourself  can  yet  know,  what  it 
will  cost  you  to  go  out  from  this  people  to  the  homeless 
and  lonely  and  ever  anxious  life  and  work  of  a  bishop. 
As  I  stand  and  look  back  upon  your  ministry  I  cannot  but 
remember  that  it  has  been  richly  and  singularly  favored. 
From  the  days  when  you  and  I  were  striplings  together, 
working  side  by  side  in  that  eastern  city  where  you  in 
your  diaconate  and  I  in  the  earlier  years  of  my  priesthood 
learned  to  prize  one  another's  friendship,  all  the  way  on 
to  this  hour,  yours  has  been  the  privilege  of  ministering 
to  those  who  were  united  and  devoted  in  their  attach- 
ment to  yourself,  and  in  their  love  and  loyalty  to  the 
Church.  Coming  here  as  the  successor  of  the  gifted 
and  saintly  Armitage,  you  had  indeed  no  easy  task  ; 
but  this  large  and  united  congregation,  its  varied  and 
beneficent  activities,  the  rare  and  unwearied  band  of 
Christian  laymen  whom  you  have  drawn  around  you  or 
held  to  you,  the  respect  in  which  you  are  held  in  this 
community  and  in  this  diocese  by  all  your  brethren,  the 
love  and  honor  of  your  bishop  (who  gives  you  up  to-day 
I  know  well  how  reluctantly),  —  all  these  testify  to  the 
faithfulness  of  your  service  and  to  its  abundant  fruitful- 
ness.  And  can  I  congratulate  you  that  you  are  called 
upon  to  leave  such  a  flock  and  such  a  work  ?  Can  I 
hide  from  myself  or  from  you  that  you  are  going  forth 
to  labors  which  will  grow  larger  every  day,  and  to  cares 


Powers  and  Power  of  the  Episcopate.        289 

and  anxieties  that  will  multiply  and  not  diminish  as  the 
years  go  by  ?  Ah,  could  we  summon  him  whom  you  are 
to  succeed,  and  whose  resplendent  path  of  service  you 
are  to  follow,  to  speak  to  you  of  your  work,  do  we  not 
know  the  tone  of  pathos  which  would  come  back  into 
that  matchless  voice  of  his  as  he  recounted  to  you  how 
''  in  journeyings  often,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  weari- 
ness and  painfulness,  besides  that  which  came  upon  him 
daily,  the  care  of  all  the  churches,"  he  had  laid  those 
broad  and  deep  foundations  on  which  henceforth  you  are 
to  build  ?  No,  my  brother ;  it  is  a  word  of  sympathy 
rather  than  of  congratulation  that  springs  to  my  lips 
to-day,  though  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  noble  field  and 
opportunity  which  open  before  you.  But  I  do  thank 
God  that  he  has  called  you  to  this  office,  and  that,  in  the 
face  of  its  large  anxieties,  you  have  so  much  to  cheer 
and  support  you.  The  unanimity  with  which  your 
brethren  in  Nebraska  have  called  you  to  be  their  bishop, 
and  the  earnestness  with  which  they  have  repeated  that 
call  have,  verily,  left  you  no  choice  ;  and  I  am  persuaded 
that  when  you  go  to  them  they  will  show  you  by  their 
welcome  and  their  co-operation  how  eager  and  steadfast 
is  their  purpose  to  strengthen  and  sustain  you  in  your 
work. 

And  do  not  forget  that  behind  them  will  be  the  flock 
from  whom  you  are  parted  to-day.  The  work  of  the 
Church  in  Nebraska  will  have  a  new  meaning  hence- 
forth, and  a  very  precious  one  to  them.  Their  hearts 
go  with  you,  and  so,  thank  God,  will  their  prayers  and 
their  alms.     It  is  thus  that  out  of  our  sorrows  and  part- 

19 


290  '  Wai/marks. 

ings  comes  the  enlargement  of  our  love  and  our  sym- 
pathy. As  you  go  to  Nebraska  remember,  then,  that 
your  going  will  help  to  enlarge  the  heart  of  this  people 
and  to  widen  the  horizon  of  their  highest  interests,  — 
inspiring  thought,  which  makes  their  loss  their  gain  as 
well,  and  which  transfigures  your  new  burdens  and  re- 
sponsibilities into  a  sacred  privilege ! 

My  dear  brother,  may  God  make  you  sufficient  for 
these  burdens,  and  when  you  are  weary  and  heavy  laden 
with  the  greatness  of  the  way,  may  He  Himself  remind 
you  that  "  God  hath  not  given  to  us  the  spirit  of  fear,  but 
of  POWER,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind." 


THE   MISSION  OF   THE   EPISCOPATE. 

AVhex  Dr.  Samuel  Seabury,  first  bishop  of  Connecticut,  after 
his  consecration  at  Aberdeen,  Nov.  14,  1784,  by  the  Scottish 
bishops,  returned  to  the  United  States,  his  coming  was  re- 
garded by  many  of  the  most  devout  people  in  New  England 
with  unmixed  apprehension  and  dismay.  Prelacy  and  a  mon- 
archy had  come  to  be  with  them  almost  identical  terms. 
There  were  traditions  still  fresh  among  them  of  earlier  days 
in  the  history  of  Puritanism  when  prelacy  stood  for  cruelty, 
intolerance,  and  the  most  rigid  proscription.  They  honestly 
feared  it ;  they  wanted  none  of  it ;  and  they  made  haste  many 
of  them  to  proclaim  that,  whatever  else  religious  liberty 
might  mean,  it  did  not  mean  the  admission  or  toleration 
among  them  of  a  form  of  church  government  which  they  hon- 
estly believed  threatened  the  foundations  of  their  civil  and 
religious  order  alike. 

Such  apprehensions,  it  is  true,  were  not  shared  —  at  any 
rate,  to  the  same  extent  —  by  other  colonies  south  of  them. 
It  will  always  be  to  the  honor,  for  instance,  of  the  colon}?-  of 
Penn,  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  that  another  and 
larger  spirit  prevailed  there;  and  it  was  a  happy  augury  of 
the  pacific  influences  whicli  the  Ej^iscopal  Church  was  in 
coming  days  to  exercise  upon  religious  strife  and  dissension 
tliat  the  first  bishop  of  Pennsylvania  was  the  gentle  William 
White,  whose  long  episcopate  and  saintly  and  benignant 
presence  as  he  went  to  and  fro  in  the  streets  of  Philadel- 
phia were  influences  of  enduring  power  throughout  the  whole 
commonwealth. 

More  than  forty  years  after  that  gracious  episcopate  was 
ended  one  of  his  successors  in  the  office  of  a  bishop  knelt  for 


292  Waymarhs. 

consecration  in  that  old  St.  Peter's  in  which  White  had 
so  long  ministered,  and  of  which  the  kneeling  presbyter, 
soon  to  be  ordained  a  bishop,  had  himself  been  rector  for 
nearly  a  score  of  years.  The  contrast  between  the  two 
earliest  consecrations  to  an  American  episcopate  and  this 
later  one  was  most  imj^ressive.  Seabury's  and  White's  had 
occurred  each  in  a  foreign  land,  and  in  the  presence  of  a 
mere  handful  of  more  or  less  interested  but  largely  alien 
spectators.  The  church  to  which  they  were  to  go  had  not 
a  half-dozen  organized  dioceses,  and  but  a  handful  of  clergy. 
In  many  places,  nay,  in  most  places  it  was  utterly  un- 
known, or  known  only  to  be  despised.  It  was  widely  re- 
garded as  an  uncongenial  exotic,  and  its  future  was  frankly 
predicted  to  be  one  of  speedy  and  mortifying  failure. 

A  century  afterwards  there  was  consecrated  in  Philadel- 
phia the  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Davies,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  sometime 
rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church,  to  be  bishop  of  the  Diocese  of 
Michigan.  Trained  in  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  and  iden- 
tified with  its  literary  and  theological  history  by  many  ties,  he 
had  been  chosen  to  be  the  worthy  successor  of  that  rare  man 
Dr.  Samuel  S.  Harris,  whose  brief  but  brilliant  episcopate 
in  Michigan  will  long  live  in  the  grateful  memory  of  Ameri- 
can Churchmen ;  and  in  that  episcopal  succession  in  which  he 
then  took  his  place,  he  was  —  significant  fact  —  the  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-second  bishop.  Since  White  knelt  at  the 
altar  of  St.  Peter's  the  small  and  obscure  communion  had 
grown  to  number  some  seventy  living  bishops,  nearly  as 
many  dioceses  and  missionary  jurisdictions,  some  four  thou- 
sand clergy,  with  probably  some  three  million  people  more  or 
less  directly  dependent  upon  their  ministrations.  On  such 
an  occasion  it  seemed  appropriate  that  something  should  be 
said  defining  the  nature  and  claims  of  the  historic  episcopate, 
and  indicating  its  mission  to  the  American  people.  To  this 
end  the  sermon  which  follows  was  preached  on  Saint  Luke's 
Dav,  Oct.  18,  1889,  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Philadelphia. 


XVII. 

THE   CALLING   OF   THE   EPISCOPATE. 

As  they  ministered  to  the  Lord,  and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost 
said,  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them. 

And  when  they  had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands 
on  them,  they  sent  them  away.  —  Acts  xiii.  2,  3. 

These  words,  which  are  included  in  the  Anglican 
Office  for  the  Consecration  of  a  Bishop,  are  omitted 
from  our  own.  This  fact  alone,  if  there  were  no  other 
evidence  of  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  what  that  was 
which  Saint  Luke  here  describes,  would  sufficiently  indi- 
cate that  the  Church  has  not  always  been,  as  to  its 
nature,  of  one  and  the  same  mind.  The  Ordinal  of  the 
Church  of  England  would  seem  to  imply  that  it  was  an 
Ordination,  or  Consecration.  The  judgment  of  scholars, 
who  were  Churchmen  as  well  as  scholars,  has  some- 
times seemed  to  lean  to  that  view  of  the  transaction 
which  makes  of  it  simply  a  designation  to  a  particular, 
and  pre-eminently  difficult  and  important,  missionary 
work. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  our  present  purpose  to  settle 
this  controversy,  nor  is  it  greatly  material.      We   are 


294  Waymarks. 

here  for  a  definite  business,  and  for  that  business 
we  find  in  Holy  Scripture,  elsewhere,  if  not  here, 
abundant  warrant.  We  are  here  not  only  because  we 
believe  that  Christ  has  planted  a  Divine  Society  in  the 
world,  but  that  He  Himself  has  ordained  the  mode  of 
its  perpetuation.  We  are  here  because  we  believe  that 
to  all  men  "diligently  reading  Holy  Scripture  and  an- 
cient authors  it  is,"  or,  if  it  is  not,  it  ought  to  be, 
"evident,  that"  that  Divine  Society  which  we  call  the 
Church  of  God  in  the  world  is  not  a  ghost  or  a  spectre, 
but  a  visible  and  recognizable  reality;  that  it  has  cer- 
tain marks  or  "  notes, "  and  that  among  these  marks  or 
"  notes, "  no  matter  what  its  corruptions,  or  apostasies, 
or  heresies,  in  this  or  that  or  the  other  age,  is  not  only 
its  Apostolic  doctrine  but  its  Apostolic  fellowship. 
We  are  here  because  we  believe  that  Apostolic  fellow- 
ship to  have  meant  no  such  invertebrate  and  acephalous 
thing  as  merely  a  community  of  sympathy  and  identity 
of  ideas,  but  an  organized  brotherhood,  with  a  rite  of 
initiation,  and  a  rite  of  association,  and  an  appointed 
agency  for  the  maintenance  of  its  organic  life  and  the 
due  transmission  of  its  authority. 

Our  brother  here  has  been  elected  to  a  large  and  diffi- 
cult task,  and  has  been  called  by  the  voice  of  the 
Church  in  the  Diocese  to  which  he  is  presently  to  go, 
to  take  upon  him  the  duties  and  burdens  of  the  Episco- 
pate. Under  such  circumstances  we  can  easily  con- 
ceive that  it  would  be  appropriate  that  those  from 
whom  he  is  parting,  and  those  among  whom  he  is 
presently  to  be  numbered,   should  give  him  their  good 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate,  295 

wishes  and  God-speed.  I  am  persuaded  that  no  one  of 
those  to  whom  I  speak  this  morning,  that  no  one  of 
those  who  are  soon  to  be  his  brethren  in  the  office  of  the 
Episcopate,  that  no  one,  here  or  elsewhere,  who  knows 
and  honors  him  for  his  winning  and  beautiful  ministry, 
would  dream  of  withholding  either. 

But  is  this  all  that  the  Church  has  to  give  him,  or 
all  that  the  requirements  of  this  occasion  demand  ? 
Most  surely  you  will  not  say  so.  Most  surely  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  we  have  come  here  this  morning 
because  we  are  persuaded  that  no  man  "taketh  this 
honor  unto  himself  but  he  that  is  called  of  God  as 
was  Aaron,"  and  that  that  Divine  call  is  to  find  its 
evidence  not  alone  in  the  election  of  a  convention,  or 
in  any  inward  conviction,  but  equally  and  always  by 
the  transmission  of  an  authority,  having  Scriptural  and 
Apostolic  warrant,  and  conferred  by  Apostolic  commis- 
sion. Amid  systems  as  various  and,  alas,  as  mutually 
contradictory  as  the  dissensions  from  which  they  have 
arisen,  we  who  are  here  are  constrained  to  see  in  the 
story  of  the  infant  life  of  the  Church  of  God  the  unmis- 
takable evidence  that  authority  to  exercise  the  ministry, 
of  whatever  rank  or  degree,  comes  not  from  below  but 
from  above,  and  that,  as  from  the  first,  it  was  handed 
down  from  Christ  and  then  from  His  Apostles,  and  not 
up  from  the  people,  or  across  from  equals,  so  it  has 
been,  or  ought  to  have  been,   ever  since. 

In  one  word,  we  are  here  because  we  believe  in  the 
Historic  Episcopate,  not  merely  as  an  historic  fact  but 
as  an  historic  necessity, — the  historic  sequence  of  a 


296  Waymarks. 

Divine  purpose  and  plan,  various  in  its  transient  and 
temporary  accidents,  if  you  choose,  but  moving  steadily, 
and  that  not  by  the  shaping  of  circumstances,  but  by  the 
guiding  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  toward  that  form  and  char- 
acter which,  having  once  taken  on,  it  has  now  retained, 
whatever  temporary  obscuration  of  its  primitive  charac- 
ter or  degradation  of  its  high  purpose  may  have  befallen 
it,  for  wellnigh  twenty  centuries. 

And  therefore  we  are  here  to  disown  the  theory  that 
the  organic  form  of  Christianity,  as  the  Catholic  Church 
holds  it  and  has  perpetuated  it,  is  merely  the  develop- 
ment and  outcome  of  civil  and  secular  institutions, 
amid  which  it  originally  found  itself,  any  more  than 
the  Atonement  on  Calvary  was  the  outcome  of  the 
Platonic  or  Aristotelian  philosophies.  Points  of  re- 
semblance, points  of  contact,  points  of  identity,  even, 
we  may  own,  here  and  there,  it  may  be,  in  the  one  as 
in  the  others ;  but  we  are  here  to-day,  if  I  at  all  under- 
stand the  purpose  of  our  coming,  to  affirm  that  yonder 
volume  does  not  more  truly  declare  to  us  the  means  of 
our  salvation  than  it  declares  and  defines  that  one  pre- 
eminent agency,  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  with  its 
inspired  message  and  its  divinely  instituted  sacraments, 
and  divinely  appointed  threefold  ministry,  as  the  visi- 
ble agency  and  instrument  by  which  that  salvation  is  to 
be  made  known  to  men. 

And  here,  at  any  rate,  whatever  may  be  proper  else- 
where, we  are  not  called  upon  to  go  beyond  this.  How 
truly  a  human  body  may  be  so  designated  which  is  more 
or  less  maimed  or  mutilated  is  a  question  which  the- 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  297 

ology  may  not  find  it  easier  to  answer  in  one  domain 
than  science  in  another.  But  in  an  age  when  there  is 
so  much  invertebrate  belief,  and  when  the  tone  of 
mutual  complacency  is  so  great  that  one  man's  deliro 
(I  dream)  is  as  good  as  another  man's  credo  (I  believe), 
it  is  as  well  in  connection  with  such  an  occasion  as  this 
to  understand  the  ground  upon  which  we  stand,  and  the 
point  from  which  we  set  out.  The  cause  of  the  reunion 
of  Christendom  will  be  greatly  forwarded  by  the  kindly 
temper  which  strives  to  understand,  and  scorns  to  mis- 
represent others ;  but  it  will  not  be  helped  by  the  mis- 
taken amiability  which  seeks  to  misinterpret  or  consents 
to  misrepresent  ourselves. 

I  have  said  this  much,  and  have  endeavored  to  say  it 
with  utmost  plainness,  because,  unless  I  am  mistaken, 
the  exigency  of  the  hour  demands  it.  But  I  have  done 
so  mainly  because  it  opens  the  way  to  that  larger  view 
of  our  text  and  of  this  occasion  to  which,  if  possible, 
we  should  ascend. 

{a)  For,  first  of  all,  and  plainly  enough,  it  belongs 
to  us  to  remember  on  such  an  occasion  as  this  that  there 
is  a  past,  and  that  we  cannot  divorce  ourselves  from  it. 
Interesting  and  impressive  as  even  the  coldest  criticism 
would  be  apt  to  own  the  service  in  which  we  are  now 
engaged,  neither  its  impressiveness  nor  its  intrinsic 
appropriateness  is  the  reason  for  our  observance  of  those 
solemn  features  which  compose  it.  We  did  not  origi- 
nate, extemporize,  or  invent  them.  Their  claim  upon 
us,  first  of  all,  resides  in  this:  that  they  are  a  part  of 
that  venerable  and  scriptural  inheritance  of  which  God 


298  Waymarhs, 

has  put  us  in  trust.  In  an  age  which,  with  its  smart 
sciolism,  considers  itself  competent  to  invent  a  method 
for  every  emergency,  and  extemporize  a  function  for 
every  most  august  solemnity,  it  is  enough  for  us  that 
we  are  here  engaged  in  doing  what  "our  fathers  did 
aforetime."  That  law  of  historic  continuity  which 
Christ  in  His  earlier  ministry  so  consistently  and  in- 
variably emphasized,  from  the  day  when  at  His  home 
in  Nazareth  He  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the  Sabbath 
dayi  to  those  closing  hours  when,  on  the  eve  of  His 
crucifixion,  He  made  ready  to  keep  the  Passover  with 
His  disciples, 2  is  still  the  Church's  truest  wisdom, 
as  it  is  daily  coming  more  and  more  plainly  to  be 
seen  to  be  an  essential  element  of  her  inmost  strength. 
The  evolution  of  the  Church,  like  the  evolution  of  the 
highest  forms  of  physical  and  intellectual  life,  must 
forever  be  along  those  lines  which  keep  her  present  in 
close  and  vascular  connection  with  her  past.  No  more 
tragic  lesson  has  been  taught  to  Christendom  than  that 
which  salutes  us,  in  this  land  and  age,  in  the  manifold 
and  mutually  destructive  divisions  of  that  Christendom, 
as  to  the  folly  and  madness  of  the  defiance  of  that  law. 
We  are  set,  in  a  generation  of  ignorant  and  audacious 
departures  from  primitive  faith  and  practice,  to  say, 
and  to  say  it  over  and  over  again,  "the  old  is  better." 
We  are  set  to  affirm  that,  howsoever  it  may  have  been 
caricatured,  overstated,  or  misunderstood,  there  is  a 
doctrine  of  Apostolic  succession  in  teaching,  in  minis- 
try, in  fellowship,  and  that  we  are  to  guard  it  and  per- 

1  St.  Luke  iv.  16.  2  gt.  Mark  xiv.  14. 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  299 

petiiate  it.  Pre-eminent  as  are  the  truths  of  Christ's 
personal  relation  to  the  personal  soul,  we  may  not  for- 
get that  He  has  chosen  to  reveal  and  proclaim  them 
through  an  agency  which  binds  those  souls  to  one  an- 
other and  to  Him  in  the  great  as  well  as  "  good  estate 
of  the  Catholic  Church."  And  this  it  is  our  bounden 
duty  to  remember  and  to  affirm,  not  less  but  more,  be- 
cause it  is  to  many  an  unwelcome  and  unnecessary 
affirmation,  and  one  that,  only  late  and  slowly,  men  are 
coming  to  own  and  accept. 

[h)  But  when  we  have  done  this  duty,  we  are  not  to 
leave  the  other  duty  undone.  And  what  is  the  other 
duty,  if  it  be  not  to  remember  that  as  there  is  a  past, 
and  that  we  must  not  get  out  of  touch  with  that,  so 
there  is  a  present,  and  that  we  must  be  careful  to  get 
into  touch  with  that  ?  The  fact  of  all  others  most  in- 
spiring in  our  land  and  day  is  this,  that  never  before 
was  the  Church  whose  children  we  are  so  earnestly  at 
work  to  understand  the  situation  in  the  midst  of  which 
she  finds  herself,  and  so  strenuous  by  any  and  every 
lawful  means  to  adjust  herself  to  its  demands.  An 
alien,  as  men  perversely  miscalled  her,  in  the  begin- 
ning, from  the  spirit  of  our  republican  institutions  and 
the  genius  of  the  American  people,  she  has  not  failed  to 
show  that  she  is  loyal  to  the  one,  and  that  she  under- 
stands the  other.  Not  always  nor  everywhere  wise  in 
the  manner  or  the  methods  of  her  original  approach  to 
those  whom  she  has  sought  to  win,  she  has  consented  to 
unlearn  not  a  little  of  her  earlier  stiffness,  and  largely 
to  disown  a  temper  of  aristocratic  reserve  and  exclu- 


300  Way  marks. 

siveness.  As  in  England,  so  in  America,  she  is  no 
longer  the  church  of  a  class  or  a  caste,  but  pre- 
eminently, at  any  rate  in  some  of  her  chiefest  centres, 
the  church  of  the  people. 

Not,  however,  let  me  say,  in  a  spirit  of  amiable 
indifferentism.  It  is  a  conspicuous  infirmity  of  the 
religious  activities  of  our  time,  that  in  their  desire  to 
commend  themselves  to  those  whom  they  seek  to  in- 
fluence, they  have  not  always  remembered  that  the 
last  method  of  effectively  doing  so  is  one  of  excessive 
complaisance  and  weak  and  worldly  concession.  The 
architecture  of  ecclesiastical  buildings  and  places  of 
religious  worship  in  our  day,  the  tone,  not  unfre- 
quently,  of  our  pulpits,  the  characteristics  of  worship, 
the  speech  and  manners  of  the  clergy,  have  all  revealed 
a  danger  lest,  in  the  aim  to  be  human  and  fraternal,  the 
Church  and  religion  may  very  easily  become  secular  and 
careless  and  worldly.  In  the  statement  of  doctrine  it  is 
well,  undoubtedly,  that  the  parish  priest  should  aim  to 
translate  the  speech  and  the  idioms  of  other  days  into 
our  own ;  but  there  is  sometimes  heard  in  the  pulpit  a 
timid  concession  to  popular  clamor,  or  popular  fancy, 
which,  in  its  spirit,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  instability 
and  incertitude,  and  in  its  influence  at  once  deteriorat- 
ing and  debilitating.  "  Stand  fast  "  (o-rT^A^ere),  says  the 
Apostle,  "in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made 
you  free,  "^  and  it  is  worth  while  to  consider  whether 
the  liberty  with  which  a  Christian  minister  is  endowed 
is  not  the  liberty  of  constancy,  rather  than,  in  faith  and 

1  Galatians  v.  1. 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  301 

ritual  and  manners,  the  liberty  of  mere  vagrancy.  In 
her  efforts  to  adapt  herself  to  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men,  the  Church  may  indeed  well  remember  her 
Master's  command  to  condescend  to  men  of  low  estate. 
But  she  is  to  descend,  to  condescend^  not  that  she  may 
stay  on  some  lower  level  of  truth  and  reverence  and  order, 
but  that,  reaching  down  to  lost  and  guilty  men,  she  may 
lift  them  up  to  every  higher  ideal  of  goodness  and 
nobleness  and  beauty.  I  hardly  know  how  to  say  what 
I  want  to  say  without  seeming  in  some  degree  to  dis- 
parage efforts  and  enterprises  with  which,  in  their  aim, 
I  have  the  heartiest  sympathy;  and  earnest  men,  for 
whose  earnest  purpose  I  have  the  heartiest  respect ;  but 
as  there  are  methods  and  agencies  which  are  used  in  our 
day  by  Christian  people  which  throng  streets  and  public 
halls  with  some  jesting  rabble  following  a  brass  band, 
and  men  and  women  tawdrily  or  grotesquely  clad,  to  be 
the  sport  of  lookers-on,  so  the  Church  is  in  danger,  I 
sometimes  fear,  of  a  zeal  to  attract,  rather  than  to  edify, 
and  to  present  herself  as  pretty  and  picturesque,  rather 
than  august,  grave,  and  inspiring.  Doubtless  there  are 
"many  men  and  many  minds,"  and  the  Catholic  Church 
must  be  as  universal  in  her  methods  and  agencies  as 
she  claims  to  be  in  her  mission  and  character.  But 
methods,  after  all,  are  only  secondary  to  that  loving 
and  self-forgetting  spirit  which  using,  as  surely  we  may 
well  remember  in  this  venerable  sanctuary,  not  yet 
spoiled  by  the  iconoclastic  spirit  of  a  modernism  which 
would  leave  nothing  venerable  unchanged,  —  which 
using,   I  say,   only  older  and  well-tried  methods,   has, 


302  Wapyiarks. 

nevertheless,  wrought  in  all  ages  of  the  Church's  his- 
tory the  mightiest  miracles  of  love  and  healing. 

Ours  is  indeed  a  new  era,  and  we  may  not  put  the 
new  wine  into  old  bottles,  —  we  may  not,  in  other 
words,  always  insist  upon  forcing  this  or  that  particu- 
lar movement  into  superannuated  and  outworn  forms 
of  activity  or  expression.  But,  in  one  sense,  and  that 
the  deepest,  the  problems  of  our  generation  are  not  new 
but  old, — as  old  as  sin  and  selfishness,  as  old  as 
human  waywardness  and  depravity  and  guilt.  And, 
whether  it  be  the  frictions  and  mutual  enmities  of  those 
in  different  walks  of  life,  or  the  misery  and  shame  that 
are  the  consequence  of  a  disregard  of  the  laws  of  God, 
what  we  want  is  not  so  much  a  new  departure  in  methods 
as  a  new  baptism  of  the  old,  and  yet  ever  renewing 
spirit.  And  so,  the  power  which  is  to  keep  the  Church, 
its  episcopate,  its  clergy,  its  people,  in  touch  with  the 
present  is  the  power  of  that  divine  sympathy  and  self- 
abnegation  which  shone,  above  all  other  graces,  in  the 
person  and  work  of  Jesus  Christ.  "And  when  they 
had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on  them, 
they  sent  them  away."  Ah!  it  was  not  for  nothing, 
we  may  be  sure,  that  just  that  precise  form  of  commis- 
sion and  empowering  was  ordained  for  the  observance 
of  the  infant  Church  of  God,  and  those  who  should  bear 
rule  in  it,  for  all  ages.  Those  pierced  hands,  "  which 
were  nailed  for  our  advantage  to  the  bitter  cross,"  and 
which,  as  Jean  Paul  wrote,  "have  turned  the  gates  of 
centuries  on  their  hinges,  —  what  unceasing  translation 
of  the  heart  of  God  was  wrought  by  their  never-resting 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  303 

touch,  of  healing  and  of  life-giving  power,  all  the  way 
from  the  blessing  of  little  children,  the  opening  of 
blind  eyes,  cleansing  of  leprous  bodies,  the  raising  of 
the  dead, — till  they  were  outstretched  in  benediction 
above  adoring  disciples  as  He  whose  they  were  was 
parted  from  His  flock,  "  and  a  cloud  received  Him  out 
of  their  sight !  "  Most  happy,  verily,  is  that  appoint- 
ment of  this  day,  the  feast  of  Saint  Luke  the  beloved 
physician,  for  a  service  which  binds  that  laying  on  of 
hands  to  which  soon  we  shall  proceed  with  the  healing 
and  healthful  work  of  Christ's  first  Apostles.  We  may 
preach,  and  teach,  and  admonish,  and  exhort  as  we 
please,  —  but  until  somehow  we  are  turning  words  into 
work,  and  entreaty  into  helpful  and  outreaching  service, 
we  shall  preach  in  vain.  That  declamatory  and  reac- 
tionary instinct  in  human  nature  which,  in  the  presence 
of  moral  and  social  evils,  spends  itself  in  vehemence  of 
denunciations  and  revolutionary  proclamations  of  war- 
fare upon  all  existing  social  order,  is  simply  a  bald 
impertinence  until  it  is  supplemented  by  some  effort 
to  lighten  the  burdens  and  readjust  the  inequalities 
which,  ofttimes,  the  noisiest  reformers  "will  not  so 
much  as  touch  with  one  of  their  fingers."  The  in- 
tellectual discontent,  the  impatience  of  creeds  and 
symbols,  the  disposition  to  challenge  the  stern  and 
righteous  teachings  of  God's  Holy  Word,  the  agrarian- 
ism  of  the  proletariat,  and  the  savage  animosity  of  an- 
archical teachers  and  their  disciples,  —  these  come,  as 
often  as  otherwise,  from  a  frigid  and  distant  temper  in 
those  who  stand  over  against  them,  a  temper  which  is 


304  Waymarks. 

too  indolent  and  too  selfish  to  make  the  Catholic  faith 
a  living  reality  to  men  by  the  swift  and  loving  eager- 
ness with  which  it  is  not  only  taught  but  lived. 

And  all  this  touches  the  office  and  ministry  which 
we  are  to-day  to  commit  to  this  our  brother-elect,  in  a 
very  close  and  living  way.  The  office  of  ruling  and 
guidance  and  oversight  to  which  he  is  now  to  be  set 
apart,  can  never  be  separated  from  that  other  of  ordain- 
ing and  confirming,  in  which  he  is  to  be  the  channel, 
under  God's  blessing,  of  those  divine  and  enabling  gifts 
which  are  for  the  strengthening  of  souls,  and  so,  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations.  In  other  words,  his  work  of 
oversight,  of  episcopizing,  can  never  be  separated  from 
that  other  work  which  keeps  him  ever,  in  a  most  real 
and  literal  way,  in  touch  with,  close  to,  and  not  aloof 
from,  the  flock  which  he  is  to  feed  and  guide.  At  this 
point  there  recur  to  me  some  words  which  are  surely, 
on  this  day  and  in  connection  Avith  this  service,  of  pre- 
eminent pathos  and  appropriateness.  In  the  volume 
entitled  "The  Dignity  of  Man,"  published  after  his 
death  by  his  daughter,  the  late  Bishop  of  Michigan,  in 
this  precise  connection,  speaks  at  length  on  this 
point :  — 

'^It  is  perfectly  obvious  that  when  Jesus,  in  Saint  John's 
Gospel,  described  Himself  as  the  Shepherd  who  entereth  in 
by  the  door,  He  was  not  discussing  the  question  of  the 
credentials  of  authority,  or  of  the  formal  commission  of 
shepherdhood ;  but  was  pointing  out  the  only  way  in  which 
shepherdhood  of  any  kind  can  discharge  its  function,  and 
realize    its  power.     He    was   propounding   a    lesson    which 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  305 

it  behooves  all  meu  to  ponder  well  who  hope  to  influence 
their  fellow-men  for  good.  Eank,  office,  order,  culture, 
property, — be  the  authority,  the  privilege,  the  right  of 
these  what  they  may,  the  eternal  law  of  God,  as  exemplified 
in  the  life  of  His  Son,  and  taught  in  His  Holy  Word,  and 
illustrated  in  human  history,  is  this :  that  none  of  these,  no 
matter  how  commissioned  or  sent,  can  exercise  any  real 
shepherdhood  over  men  except  as  they  are  in  sympathy  with 
them.  This  is  true  in  Church  and  State ;  of  the  employers 
of  labor;  of  the  heads  of  households;  of  civil  rulers  and 
political  leaders ;  of  bishops,  priests  and  deacons,  —  the 
power  to  lead  men  lies  in  sympathizing  with  them  and  walk- 
ing in  the  same  way  with  them.  *  He  that  entereth  in  by  the 
door  is  the  shepherd  of  the  sheep.'  Saying  this,  the  great 
Master  spoke  not  merely  as  a  moralist  and  sage,  but  also  as  a 
statesman.  He  propounded  a  new  principle  in  social  and 
political  economy  which  princes  and  diplomatists  have 
hardly  yet  grown  up  to  the  grandeur  of,  though  the 
vicissitudes  of  falling  thrones  and  changing  dynasties  have 
been  confirming  it  for  thousands  of  years.  For  man  has 
always  been  prone  to  think  that  eminence  of  gifts  or  station 
would  give  him  power;  that  pomp,  or  wealth,  or  place, 
would  enable  him  to  exercise  dominion.  But  Jesus  utterly 
reversed  all  this  when  He  said,  '  Whosoever  will  be  great 
among  you,  let  him  be  your  minister;  and  whosoever  will  be 
chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your  servant :  even  as  the  Son 
of  man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,  and 
.to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many.'  Saying  this  He  did 
not  repudiate  distinction  of  order,  but  rather  pointed  out  the 
eternal  purpose  for  which  it  is  ordained.  He  did  not 
renounce  authority,  but  rather  pointed  out  the  only  way 
to  vindicate  and  exercise  it.  For  He  said  in  another  place : 
'Ye  call  me  Master  and  Lord:  and  ye  say  well;  for  so 
I  am. '  But  because  I  am  your  Lord  and  Master,  I  am  come 
among  you  as  one   that  serveth.      So    here  He  taught    the 

20 


306  Waymarks. 

same  great  lesson.  The  man  of  influence  is  the  man  of 
sympathy  5  the  man  of  power  is  the  man  of  service.  The 
shej)herd  enters  in  by  the  sheep's  door;  he  leads  them  in  and 
ouf  and  finds  pasture  for  them.  He  knows  them,  and  calls 
them  by  name.  They  know  his  voice,  and  w  ill  come  when 
he  calls  them.  He  that  walks  with  the  sheep  is  the 
shepherd  of  the  sheep." 

You  at  any  rate,  my  dear  brother,  will  not  misunder- 
stand or  blame  if  I  recall  these  words  to-day.  There 
are  some  of  us  here  this  morning  who,  like  those 
Hebrews  at  the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple,  cannot  quite 
part  the  joy  of  this  happy  and  auspicious  hour  from 
tearful  memories  of  one  whose  place  you  are  fitly  to 
fill,  and  whose  noble  episcopate,  all  too  soon  ended  as 
it  seems  to  us,  you  are  to-day  to  take  up.  You,  who 
knew  and  honored  him,  will  not  misconstrue  us  if, 
seeking  for  a  word  most  apt  and  fitting  for  this  hour, 
we  borrow  his.  And  verily  you  need  not.  That  single 
and  blameless  ministry,  so  unobtrusive,  so  untiring,  so 
wise  and  tender  and  helpful,  which  for  so  many  years 
you  have  exercised  in  this  parish,  is  the  best  witness 
that,  in  taking  up  the  larger  and  more  difficult  tasks 
which  are  before  you,  you  do  not  now  need  to  begin  to 
learn  to  keep  yourself  in  touch  with  the  past,  and  also 
with  the  present.  The  cure  and  charge  in  which  so  long 
and  faithfully  you  have  labored,  is  one  endeared  to 
Churchmen,  and  not  alone  in  this  diocese  but  all  over 
the  land.  The  cure  of  White  and  Kemper,  De  Lancey 
and  Odenheimer,  —  it  is  associated  in  the  mind  of  him 
w^ho  is  your  preacher  with  one  whose  name  he  bears. 


The   Calling  of  the  Episcopate.  307 

and  who,  coming  here  now  nearly  seventy  years  ago  to 
receive  at  the  hands  of  William  White  both  baptism 
and  ordination,  returned  after  many  days  to  minister 
in  this  diocese  as  its  Bishop  for  nearly  twenty  years. 
It  is  thus  that  the  consecrated  memories  of  the  past 
and  the  hallowed  affections  of  the  present  assemble 
here  to  speak  to  you,  Salve^  vale,  —  Hail,  and  farewell ! 
It  is  thus  that  the  Church  of  other  and  feebler  days 
joins  in  sending  you  forth  to  what  was  then  untrodden 
ground,  and  now  has  grown  to  be  one  of  her  foremost 
and  noblest  dioceses.  Believe  me,  that  in  going  there 
you  will  have  the  welcome  of  warm  and  loyal  hearts 
and  the  support  of  strong  and  generous  hands.  And 
believe  me  too,  that  in  Avelcoming  you  to  this  office  to- 
day, we  who  do  so  are  glad  and  thankful  that  the  Provi- 
dence of  God,  wiser  than  our  poor  judgments,  has 
seemed  to  disappoint  us  for  a  time,  only  to  give  us  to- 
day, in  the  successor  of  that  great  Bishop  of  Michigan 
who  went  so  lately  to  his  rest,  one  who,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  the  whole  Church,  is  pre-eminently  worthy  to 
succeed  him.  The  various  training  which  as  teacher, 
pastor,  and  priest  you  have  had,  will  find  no  unworthy 
field  in  the  diocese  to  which  you  go,  and  that  earlier 
identity  with  studies  pre-eminently  identified  with 
God's  ancient  people  is  one  among  many  guarantees 
that  you  will  both  keep  yourself  in  touch  with  a  venera- 
ble and  historic  past  as  well  as  with  a  living  and  ex- 
acting present. 

I  know  what  ties  you  sever  to-day,  and  1  should  sadly 
abuse  my  opportunity  if  I  said  one  word,  even  though 


308  Waymarks. 

it  might  be  of  well-meant  sympathy,  to  open  that 
wound,  and  so  make  the  parting  harder  and  the  wrench 
more  bitter.  You  are  called  to-day  to  make  an  offering 
of  yourself  to  God;  and  this  your  flock  is  called  to  give 
its  best  for  Him,  in  giving  you. 

May  God  who  has  called  you,  as  we  are  most  cer- 
tainly persuaded,  strengthen  you,  and  comfort  them; 
and  may  the  Master  whom  you  hear  to-day,  bidding 
you  go  forth  to  take  this  yoke  of  higher  ministry  upon 
you,  walk  beside  you  all  the  way,  making  that  yoke  an 
easy  yoke,   and  this,  your  heaviest  burden,   light! 


FREE  CHURCHES. 

N"o  review  of  ecclesiastical  life  in  the  United  States  would  be 
complete  which  did  not  recognize  the  considerable  change 
which  has  taken  place  during  the  last  twenty  years  in  the 
matter  of  free  churches.  It  cannot,  indeed,  be  said  that  that 
change  has  greatly  affected  the  convictions  of  a  large  and  in- 
telligent constituency,  whose  attitude  toward  free  churches 
has  in  some  cases  changed  only  from  one  of  languid  indiffer- 
ence to  one  of  distinct  and  sincere  hostility.  With  these  the 
free-church  movement  is  associated  with  certain  elements  of 
unreality,  if  not  of  phariseeism,  —  which  latter,  it  must 
frankly  be  owned,  is  sometimes  apparently,  if  not  really, 
present  in  the  extravagant  language  of  its  advocates.  It  is 
one  thing  to  say,  as  it  would  seem  might  justly  be  said,  that 
the  principle  of  a  free  and  open  house  of  worship,  where  all 
men,  of  whatever  rank  and  condition,  are  equally  welcome, 
is  the  right  principle  in  worship,  and  quite  another  to  say 
that  those  who  tolerate  or  have  a  part  in  any  other  system 
are  guilty  of  a  deliberate  denial  of  the  first  principles  of 
Christianity.  There  is  unquestionably  room  for  an  honest 
difference  of  opinion  in  regard  to  a  movement  which  is  en- 
compassed with  many  serious  practical  difficulties,  and  which 
—  to  some,  at  any  rate  —  seems  to  lose  almost  as  much  in 
one  direction  as  it  gains  in  another. 

It  may  be  said,  for  instance,  as  an  objection  to  the  free- 
church  system,  that  it  exhausts,  if  not  the  energies,  at  least 
the  interest,  of  a  congregation  in  the  maintenance  of  public 
worship,  and  that  when  provision  for  this  has  been  made, 
most  free-church  congregations  do  little  or  nothing  for  the 


310  Waymarks. 

work  of  the  church  beyond  their  own  walls.  It  may  be  said, 
again,  that  the  system  assists  the  evasion  of  just  responsi- 
bility" for  the  maintenance  of  public  worship,  by  leaving  it  so 
entirely  to  voluntary  offerings  as  to  bind  upon  no  one  a  pre- 
cise and  definite  obligation.  It  may  be  said,  yet  again,  that 
it  devolves  upon  the  clergy  a  vulgar  and  anxious  concern  in 
regard  to  the  pecuniary  interests  of  a  parish,  which  is  at 
once  disheartening  and  secularizing.  Still  further,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  actual  working  of  a  system  which  denies 
fixed  and  reserved  places  in  the  church  edifice  to  all  alike  is 
injurious  to  the  solidarity  of  the  family,  which  is  scattered 
and  disintegrated,  as  so  many  isolated  individuals,  on  all  occa- 
sions of  public  worship.  And,  finally,  it  is  sometimes  urged 
that  in  practice  the  system  is  often  no  better  than  the  pew 
system,  since  it  not  unfrequently  concedes  arbitrarilj^  to 
favored  persons  what  it  affects  to  deny  to  all,  and  this  upon 
no  accepted  basis  of  ^' first  come,  first  served"  or  ^'best  pay, 
best  seat,"  either  of  which  principles  has  at  least  the  merit 
of  some  kind  of  equity. 

But  when  all  these  objections  have  been  urged,  there  re- 
mains a  profound  conviction  of  which  it  is  sufficient  to  saj^, 
by  way  of  preface  to  the  two  discourses  which  follow,  that  its 
fruits  demonstrate  it  to  be  a  steadily  growing  conviction. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the  present  century 
free  churches  were,  in  the  communion  for  which  the  writer 
is  permitted  to  speak,  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  phenomenal. 
Within  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  they  have  become  so 
numerous  that  in  some  dioceses  there  are  no  others,  while  in 
others  they  are  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception.  As  was 
to  be  expected,  they  most  widely  prevail  where  social  dis- 
tinctions and  those  created  by  wealth  are  least  marked;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  great  cities  they  make  way  against 
both  these  hostile  influences  but  slowly;  and  yet  in  these, 
and  conspicuously  in  one  or  two  instances  in  the  Diocese  of 
New  York,  they  have  achieved  a  success  which  is  most  of  all 


Free   Churches,  311 

precious  because  it  betokens  the  breaking  down  of  prejudices 
which  are  most  likely  to  be  fatal  to  the  progress  of  the 
Church  and  her  divine  message  among  those  whose  sor- 
rows and  burdens  make  most  pathetic  claim  for  her  divine 
consolations. 

The  first  of  the  sermons  following  was  preached  at  the  con- 
secration of  Grace  Chapel,  New  York,  on  Sept.  25,  1876,  and 
the  second  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Apostles,  Philadelphia, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  anniversary  of  the  Free-Church  Asso- 
ciation, May  17,  1877. 


XVIII. 

A   CONSECRATION    SERMON. 

The  rich  and  poor  meet  together  ;  the  Lord  is  the  maker  of 
them  all.  —  Proverbs  xxii.  2. 

Over  the  chancel  arch  of  the  building  which  formerly 
stood  a  little  to  the  northward  of  the  spot  upon  which 
we  are  assembled  this  morning,  and  which  was  de- 
stroyed by  fire  on  the  eve  of  Christmas  Day,  1872,  ran 
the  legend  which  I  have  chosen  as  my  text.  The  words 
were  a  proclamation  of  the  motive  by  which  those  who 
had  reared  that  building  were  inspired,  and  a  declara- 
tion of  those  principles  of  worship  by  which  they  aimed 
to  be  governed. 

The  first  Grace  Chapel  was  reared  in  the  year  1849, 
and  it  is  at  once  interesting  and  instructive  to  trace 
the  history  of  its  inception.  When  the  present  struc- 
ture, known  as  Grace  Church,  in  Broadway,  was  con- 
secrated just  thirty  years  ago,  its  rector,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Thomas  House  Taylor,  D.D.,  in  the  sermon  preached  at 
its  consecration,  spoke  as  follows :  "  I  would  seize  upon 
this  occasion  of  joyous  congratulation  to  lead  you  on 
from  one  good  and  glorious  work  to  another,  perhaps 
more   really  good,    perhaps  more  truly  glorious  still. 


A  Consecration  Sermon.  313 

You  have  indeed  provided  for  yourselves,  and  for  the 
deathless  spirits  of  your  little  ones,  this  place  of  prayer 
in  all  its  soothing  and  subduing  associations  of  solem- 
nity and  beauty ;  and  now  I  have  come  to  persuade  you 
to  go  on  and  provide  for  the  spiritual  and  eternal  wants 
of  the  poor,  whom  God  has  commanded  to  be  always 
with  you. 

"  My  (ibject  is  to  ask  that  you  will  give  me  the  means 
of  building  and  preparing  for  the  most  efficient  and 
most  immediate  operation,  Grace  Church  Chapel,  a 
church  in  which  the  Word  and  sacraments  shall  be 
administered,  and  in  which  the  sittings  shall  always 
be  free  to  all  who  will  use  them  for  their  souls'  good." 

The  answer  to  this  appeal  was  not  a  great  while  in 
taking  visible  form,  and  becoming  a  most  successful 
reality. 

A  free  chapel  was  reared  upon  the  corner  of  Madison 
Avenue  and  Twenty-eighth  Street,  and  was  intrusted 
first  to  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Edwin  Harwood,  and  after- 
ward to  that  of  the  Rev.  Henry  E.  Montgomery,  whose 
laborious  and  successful  ministry  in  this  community  is 
still  a  fragrant  memory  in  the  homes  of  many  Church- 
men among  us.  In  the  year  1856  the  congregation 
worshipping  in  that  chapel  organized  itself  into  an  in- 
dependent parish,  thenceforward  known  as  the  Church 
of  the  Incarnation,  which  now,  in  turn,  maintains  its 
own  free  chapel  (once  ministered  to  by  him  who  to-day 
assumes  the  charge  of  this),  and  soon  after,  Grace 
Church  proceeded  to  the  erection  of  another  and  much 
more  spacious  chapel  hard  by  this  present  site. 


314  Waymarks, 

The  second  Grace  Chapel,  with  as  large  a  number  of 
sittings  as  the  parent  church,  was  speedily  completed, 
and  opened  under  the  most  successful  ministry  of  the 
Rev.  Robert  George  Dixon.  That  ministry  verified  the 
language  of  the  text,  as  nearly  as  it  has  ever  been  veri- 
fied in  the  history  of  the  Church  in  this  city.  The  con- 
gregation which  Mr.  Dixon  gathered  about  him  was  one 
drawn  exclusively  from  no  one  class  or  coiidition  of 
life,  but  included  both  rich  and  poor,  the  man  of  sub- 
stance and  the  day  laborer,  the  woman  of  leisure  and 
the  woman  who  won  her  maintenance  at  the  point  of 
her  needle. 

Thus  far  Grace  Chapel  certainly  realized  its  original 
design,  and  turned  into  honest  reality  the  words  of  that 
legend  which  adorned  it.  But  it  was  not  a  great  many 
years  before  it  was  found  that  the  building,  though 
cost  and  pains  had  not  been  spared  in  rearing  it,  was 
but  ill-adapted  for  the  uses  of  free  church  or  indeed, 
any  church  work,  and  was  wholly  wanting  in  those 
manifold  conveniences,  which  the  growth  of  church 
life  among  us  have  made  indispensable  to  the  manifold 
forms  of  parochial  activity.  In  the  construction  of  the 
building  everything  had  been  sacrificed  to  a  large  au- 
ditorium. There  was  no  provision  for  parochial  and 
other  societies,  and  even  the  accommodations  of  the 
Sunday-school,  which  were  provided  in  the  recesses  of 
a  damp  and  dark  basement,  were  such  as  to  discourage 
those  most  interested  in  its  prosperity.  The  young 
men  and  women  of  the  parent  church  who  offered  their 
services  as  teachers  found  that  their  catechetical  func- 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  315 

tions  had  to  be  exercised  amid  surroundings  that 
recalled  the  catacombs,  and  in  an  atmosphere  which 
seemed  likely,  to  sensitive  constitutions,  to  threaten 
the  re-enacting  of  the  primitive  martyrdoms.  In  a 
word,  beyond  the  not  altogether  convenient  arrange- 
ments of  the  main  assemblage-room  itself,  much  about 
the  building  was  calculated  rather  to  hinder  than  to 
foster  growth  and  prosperity. 

When,  therefore,  the  edifice  was  destroyed  by  fire, 
the  first  resolve  of  those  upon  whom  fell  the  burden  of 
its  reconstruction  was  the  resolve  that  the  new  Grace 
Chapel  should  be  a  structure  fully  abreast  of  the  de- 
mands of  church  life  and  church  work  in  this  age  and 
in  this  city. 

The  result  of  that  resolution  salutes  us  in  these  our 
surroundings  this  morning.  As  we  have  placed  the 
font  at  the  threshold  of  this  chapel,  in  token  that  bap- 
tism is  the  door  and  gateway  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
Church  of  God,  so  have  we  placed  Grace  Hall,  the 
building  through  which  we  have  passed  on  our  way 
hither,  at  the  threshold  of  Grace  Chapel,  in  token  that 
the  Church's  godly  training  and  nurture  is  the  thresh- 
old of  those  sacraments  and  ordinances  which  she 
offers  for  the  strengthening  and  refreshing  of  more 
adult  life.  We  have  felt  that  this  work  of  teaching 
and  training  was  not  to  be  thrust  underground  or  done 
in  a  corner.  We  have  felt  that,  amid  all  the  competi- 
tions of  that  secular  education  which  is  going  on  about 
us,  it  demanded  the  best  appliances  and  the  most  gen- 
erous provision  of  every  suitable,  tasteful,  and  approved 


316  Waymarks. 

help.  We  have  felt  that  those,  too,  who  were  willing 
to  labor,  to  plan,  and  to  contrive  for  the  bettering  of 
poor  children,  for  the  relief  of  the  sick,  for  the  succor 
of  the  neglected  and  destitute,  —  to  do,  in  a  word,  the 
work  which  has  been  done  for  the  past  eight  years  by 
the  various  societies  connected  with  this  parish, —  were 
entitled  to  every  convenience  and  accommodation  which 
their  blessed  work  demanded.  And  feeling  this,  we 
have  aimed,  in  the  building  which  immediately  adjoins 
this,  to  provide  such  appliances  and  conveniences,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  models,  and  in  ample  and  generous 
measure. 

And  so,  too,  in  this  chapel  itself.  It  has  been  felt 
by  those  who  have  reared  it  that  a  free  church  ought  to 
be  no  less  costly  or  spacious,  or  richly  adorned,  than 
if  it  were  designed  for  the  use  of  those  who,  through  an 
ownership  of  the  sittings,  are  supposed  to  acquire  a 
certain  right  of  property  in  the  house  of  God.  It  would 
have  been  easy,  when  the  former  edifice  was  destroyed 
by  fire,  to  have  parted  with  its  site  at  a  very  considera- 
ble advance  upon  the  original  cost,  and  to  have  erected 
in  a  less  expensive  neighborhood  a  much  cheaper  struc- 
ture. But  it  was  felt  that  this  would  be  an  economy 
too  dearly  purchased;  and  instead,  therefore,  of  any 
diminution  of  outlay  there  has  been  a  considerable  in- 
crease. Additional  land  has  been  acquired,  the  service 
of  skilled  architects  and  superior  mechanics  has  been 
secured,  and  the  whole  work,  which  has  involved  an 
expenditure  of  nearly  |100,000,  has  been  done  with  the 
very  best  materials,   and  with  a  constant  reference  to 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  317 

honesty,  thoroughness,  and  beauty  of  result.  Whatever 
else  may  be  said  of  this  building,  it  may  safely  be  said 
that  we  offer  to  God  this  morning  nothing  that  is 
cheap  or  mean  or  inferior.  This  edifice,  placed  as  it  is 
at  one  of  the  most  central  and  commanding  points  in 
this  great  city,  may  safely  challenge  comparison  with 
any  others  which  have  lately  been  reared  in  the 
diocese. 

Yes,  this  much  we  may  say,  and  saying  it  must  needs 
regret  that  we  can  say  no  more.  If  there  has  been,  to 
any  ear,  a  sound  of  boastfulness  in  what  has  thus  far 
been  uttered,  I  venture  to  predict  that  before  I  have 
done  you  will  own  that  I  have  approached  these  services 
and  this  duty  in  a  very  different  spirit.  It  is  a  duty 
from  which  I  would  gladly  have  been  excused,  and  from 
which  I  had  hoped  to  have  been  relieved.  But  having 
been  bidden  to  it  by  a  voice  which  I  may  not  disregard, 
I  have  no  option  but  to  speak  of  our  enterprise  of  this 
mornins:,  and  of  its  relations  to  the  work  of  the  Church 
in  this  community,  and  among  our  American  people,  in 
terms  at  once  honest,  explicit,  and  unreserved. 

Let  me  say,  then,  at  the  outset,  that  the  erection  of 
free  chapels,  in  connection  with  parish  churches  which 
are  not  free,  is  a  part  of  our  modern  and  American  sys- 
tem of  expedients.  I  shall  not  undertake  this  morning 
to  trace  the  rise  and  growth  of  what  is  called  the  pew 
system  beyond  our  own  shores,  or  to  explain  its  origin 
amid  other  surroundings.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  in 
England,  where  it  has  been  known  for  many  genera- 
tions, and  where  some  of  its  worst  abuses  have  ripened 


318  Waymarks. 

to  maturity,  it  has  always  existed  w«ith  qualifications 
largely  unknown  among  ourselves,  and  that  to-day,  in 
the  Church  of  England,  it  is  as  verily  a  decaying  and 
vanishing  usage  as  is  the  use  of  the  whipping-post,  or 
the  imprisonment  of  men  for  debt.  Unfortunately, 
however,  this  cannot  be  said  of  it  in  the  United  States, 
where  the  tendency,  if  it  is  marked  enough  to  be  de- 
tected in  any  particular  direction,  is  in  the  direction  of 
the  wider  prevalence  of  the  pewed  system.  I  know 
that  this  is  not  the  case  in  our  own  Church  where  (as  I 
believe  is  true  in  Minnesota)  there  are  whole  dioceses 
where  there  is  scarcely  a  church  or  chapel  which  is  not 
free.  But  in  communions  outside  the  Church,  as 
amoug  the  Methodists,  the  pew  system  has  certainly 
gained  ground  in  cities,  while,  at  the  other  ecclesiasti- 
cal extreme,  the  churches  of  the  Roman  obedience 
have,  many  of  them,  pews  which  are  let  and  sub-let  to 
two  or  three  series  of  tenants. 

And  among  ourselves,  while  there  has  been  progress, 
that  progress  has  not  been  rapid,  and  the  growth  of  a 
sounder  sentiment  in  the  Church  at  large  has,  on  the 
whole,  been  painfully  slow.  As  it  should  be  in  all 
great  reforms,  the  clergy  have  been  in  the  advance, 
and  too  much  honor  cannot  be  given  to  men  who  have 
committed  themselves  to  the  free-church  movement 
with  a  noble  disregard  of  every  personal  consideration 
of  comfort  or  security.  But  the  clergy  have  not  been 
largely  followed  by  the  laity ;  nor  is  it,  perhaps,  greatly 
surprising.  The  success  of  the  free-church  movement 
in  England  has  been  achieved,    it  should  be    remem- 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  319 

bered,  under  different  conditions  and  amid  very  differ- 
ent surroundings  from  our  own.  English  societ}^  is  a 
society  substantially  of  fixed  classes  and  of  sharply 
defined  social  lines.  Men  hold  their  place  in  it  mainly 
by  virtue  of  hereditary  considerations  quite  outside  of 
any  purchased  precedence  in  the  house  of  God.  In- 
deed, so  firmly  fixed  are  those  lines,  and  so  potent  in 
separating  classes,  that  when  men  come  to  the  house  of 
God  they  are  anxious  —  the  loftiest  often  even  more 
than  the  lowliest  —  to  forget  and  obliterate  those  lines 
by  every  means  in  their  power.  A  friend  of  mine, 
visiting  a  crowded  church  in  the  East  End  of  Lon- 
don, which  is  the  Five  Points  neighborhood  of  that 
great  city,  reached  over  the  shoulder  of  one  near  him 
in  the  throng  which  gathered  in  its  porch,  and  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  vicious  custom  not  yet  wholly  extinct 
in  England,  dropped  a  shilling  in  the  hand  of  some  one 
whom  he  had  observed  with  his  back  to  him  busily 
seating  strangers.  The  supposed  verger  turned  at  once 
and  faced  him,  and  he  recognized  in  him  one  of  the 
first  noblemen  in  England.  In  other  words,  a  man  of 
high  rank  came  to  the  services  mainly  that  he  might 
forget  his  rank,  and  busy  himself  as  the  servant  of  the 
lowliest  stranger  that  sought  entrance  there. 

But  with  us,  the  condition  of  things  is  very  different. 
In  America  there  are  no  fixed  classes,  but  there  is,  in 
every  generation,  a  large  class  who  are  struggling  for 
social  precedence,  and  who  are  willing  to  buy  it  at  any 
cost.  And  for  this  class  the  pew  system  seems  to  have 
been  especially  contrived.     To  buy  a  place  in  a  con- 


320  Waymarhs. 

spicuous  church,  and  have  that  place,  itself,  as 
conspicuous  as  may  be,  this  is  a  title  to  a  certain 
recognition  which,  however  hazy  and  indefinite  it  may 
be  when  you  undertake  to  analyze  it,  is  not  indefinite 
in  its  actual  results.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that 
many  churches  are  composed  almost  exclusively  of 
persons  of  one  class,  or,  at  any  rate,  of  those  of  ample 
means,  if  not  of  great  wealth.  I  may  not  pause  here 
to  ask  how  such  churches  manage  to  read  and  to  hear 
some  passages  in  the  Epistle  General  of  Saint  James,  and 
I  know  it  may  be  answered  that,  even  in  such  churches, 
there  is  abundant  hospitality  to  strangers,  and  that  that 
hospitality  is  exercised  generously  and  unmurmuringly 
from  one  year's  end  to  another.  I  presume  there  are 
many  churches  in  New  York  in  which  there  are  no  free 
sittings,  and  yet  in  which,  as  in  that  to  which  it  is  my 
own  privilege  to  minister,  the  strangers  who  are  wel- 
comed to  its  pews  on  any  given  Sunday  may  be  counted 
by  hundreds.  But  I  am  speaking  of  the  general  work- 
ing  of  a  system,  and  as  to  the  results  of  that  system,  it 
seems  to  me  no  candid  mind  can  really  be  in  doubt.  I 
was  conversing,  not  long  ago,  with  a  singularly  intelli- 
gent layman,  resident  in  a  neighboring  city,  whose 
statements,  volunteered  without  a  single  leading  ques- 
tion, or  indeed  an  observation  of  any  sort  on  my  own 
part,  were  certainly  worthy  of  note.  Himself  a  Church- 
man, though  nurtured  a  Unitarian,  he  had  enjoyed  ex- 
ceptional opportunities  for  observing  the  history  and 
progress  of  congregations  of  the  most  various  and  di- 
verse creeds  and  traditions.     As  the  result  of  such  ob- 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  321 

servation  he  stated  as  his  belief  that  at  the  present  ratio 
of  decrease,  the  most  stately  and  costly  church  edifices 
in  the  city  of  his  own  residence  would  be  within  the 
next  twenty-five  years  virtually  empty  of  worshippers. 
Crowded  together  as  they  had  been  during  the  past  ten 
years  in  a  district  where  land  was  most  costly,  and  where 
were  to  be  found  only  the  residences  of  the  wealthy,  the 
region  had  come  to  be  described  with  a  significant  sar- 
casm as  the  "Holy  Land."  But  no  pilgrimages  were 
made  to  it  from  other  and  less  favored  regions.  The 
churches  were  filled,  or  rather  barely  half-filled,  with 
representatives  from  the  classes  living  immediately 
about  them.  The  charges  for  sittings,  and,  more  than 
all,  the  general  atmosphere  of  these  churches  excluded 
absolutely  all  persons  who  labored  with  their  own 
hands  for  their  living,  and  scarcely  less  those  of 
limited  means  who  form  that  vast  middle  class  which, 
as  it  is  the  most  numerous  among  us,  so  is  it  the  most 
powerful  in  all  great  religious  and  social  movements. 
It  was  the  conviction  of  this  witness  that,  unless  the 
present  pew  system  was  abandoned,  many  of  these 
churches  would,  themselves,  have  to  be  abandoned ;  and 
he  instanced  the  case  of  one  costly  and  splendid  edi- 
fice, lately  erected,  which  has  already  been  closed, 
partly,  it  is  true,  because  it  has  proved  to  be  almost 
impossible  to  conduct  public  services  within  it  so  as  to 
make  those  services  intelligible;  but  also  because  there 
was  really  no  congregation  to  occupy  or  to  sustain  it. 
In  other  words,  it  was  his  conviction  that  what  is 
known  as  the  pew  system  was  rapidly  contributing,  in 

21 


^22  Wai/marks. 

that  community  at  any  rate,  to  the  steady  decline,  if 
not  to  the  absolute  abandonment  of  all  habit  of  attend- 
ance upon  public  worship  by  large  masses  of  people. 

I  am  aware  that  in  New  England  (and  it  is  of  a  New 
England  city  that  I  have  been  speaking)  there  are  other 
causes  which  may  be  alleged  as  having  been  more  or 
less  operative  in  producing  such  results.  But  it  is  not 
possible  wholly  to  account  for  these  results  by  attribut- 
ing them  to  the  growth  of  unbelief,  or  to  an  increasing 
indifference  to  religious  sanctions.  There  has  been  as 
much,  if  not  more,  of  both  these  in  England,  during 
the  last  twenty-five  years,  as  there  has  been  among 
ourselves.  Indeed  the  teachings  which  have  been  sup- 
posed to  produce  such  results  have  emanated  from 
English  cities  and  English  universities,  rather  than 
from  our  own.  But,  during  that  time,  it  is  idle  to  deny 
that,  especially  in  the  Church  of  England  itself,  there 
has  been  a  marked,  in  many  cases  a  vast,  increase  in 
the  number  of  public  services,  and  in  the  numbers  of 
those  who  are  in  attendance  upon  them.  And  it  is 
equally  idle  to  deny  that  that  increase  has  been  syn- 
chronous with  the  growth  of  free  churches,  and  with 
the  partial  or  complete  removal  of  the  restrictions 
upon  the  use  of  the  sittings  at  certain  specified  ser- 
vices in  others  that  are  not  free. 

These  facts,  I  take  it,  speak  for  themselves.  If 
they  have  any  meaning  at  all,  they  mean  that  our 
present  system  of  pewed  churches  is  a  mistake,  and 
that,  if  it  had  any  seeming  warrant  in  the  exigencies  of 
other  days,  it  must  sooner  or  later  give  way  before  the 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  323 

graver,  — may  I  not  truly  say  ?  — the  sterner  exigencies 
of  our  own.  I  know  that  there  are  many  pewed 
churches  among  us  that  are  still  thronged  and  pros- 
perous. If,  for  instance,  I  were  content  not  to  look 
beyond  the  walls  of  the  edifice  in  which  I  myself  min- 
ister, I  might  easily  dismiss  all  anxiety  for  the  welfare 
of  the  Church  at  large.  But  a  few  churches  occupying 
a  central  position,  and  with  means  and  ample  accom- 
modations, are  no  criterion  of  the  vast  majority  that 
are  otherwise  circumstanced. 

And  the  misfortune  with  these,  as  indeed  with  all 
pewed  churches,  is  that  they  work  to  the  disadvantage 
of  the  Church  at  large  in  two  ways.  In  the  first  place, 
as  I  have  indicated,  they  tend  to  exclusion,  and  to  the 
perpetuation,  in  the  last  place  on  earth  in  which  it 
ought  to  be  known,  of  a  spirit  of  caste,  and  in  the  sec- 
ond place,  they  act  injuriously  upon  the  growth  and 
prosperity  of  all  free  churches  around  them.  It  is 
fundamental  to  the  well-being  of  any  congregation  that 
it  should  include  within  its  worshippers  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men.  But  this  will  never  largely  come 
to  pass,  —  it  is  well  to  face  the  situation  frankly,  — 
this  will  never  largely  come  to  pass  while  it  is  possi- 
ble for  certain  classes  to  pass  by  the  doors  of  a  free 
church  for  another  in  which  they  can  purchase  certain 
privileges  —  a  certain  pre-eminence  —  by  a  certain 
money  expenditure.  So  long  as  this  continues,  free 
churches  as  a  whole  will  languish,  struggling  for  ex- 
istence, or  else  depending  for  their  maintenance  upon 
those  who  are  without. 


324  Wayraarks. 

And  so,  while  I  believe  that  we  have  done  here  the 
best  that  could  be  done  under  the  present  circum- 
stances, I  cannot  flatter  myself  that  such  temporary 
expedients  are  in  the  line  of  the  Church's  highest 
ideal.  We  have  done  well  in  that  we  have  not  reared 
this  edifice  in  an  obscure  neighborhood,  of  mean  pro- 
portions, or  of  cheap  materials.  But  the  Church  of 
our  affections  will  do  better,  nay,  best,  when  it  resolves 
that  instead  of  pewed  churches  supplementing  them- 
selves with  free  chapels  all  churches  shall  be  free,  and 
when,  in  God's  house  at  any  rate,  the  sound  of  buying 
and  selling,  of  hiring  and  leasing,  shall  be  forever 
silenced. 

I  know  well  that,  in  the  way  of  such  a  reform,  the 
obstacles  are  many  and  serious.  There  is  the  preju- 
dice of  life-long  habit  and  training,  there  are  the  rights 
of  property,  there  are  the  very  practical  questions  of 
maintenance  and  support. 

To  overcome  these  difficulties  and  to  solve  such  prob- 
lems will  be  the  work  not  of  a  day  nor  of  a  year.  No 
great  revolution  —  and  surely  this  involves  a  great 
revolution  —  was  ever  successfully  accomplished  save 
through  the  gradual  education  of  the  popular  mind; 
and  the  advocates  of  free  churches  have  sometimes 
alienated  as  much  sympathy  and  support  by  their  acri- 
monious impatience  as  they  have  won  by  their  single 
and  self-sacrificing  devotion. 

But  meantime  the  movement  is  destined  to  grow  and 
spread,  and  ours  it  is,  especially,  who  are  not  formally 
identified  with  it,  to  help  and  not  to  hinder  it.     It  has 


A   Consecration  Sermon.  325 

been  my  own  habit  to  preach  a  sermon  annually  in  the 
parish  church  of  which  I  am  rector,  in  behalf  of  this 
free  chapel,  and  I  have  been  accustomed,  on  such  occa- 
sions, to  present  some  of  the  arguments  for  the  univer- 
sal adoption  of  the  principle  of  free  churches.  Of 
course,  the  adoption  of  that  principle,  when  the  time 
shall  be  ripe  for  it,  will  involve  something  of  friction, 
and  something  more  of  collision  with  wonted  tradi- 
tions; but,  by  the  abandonment  of  pews  (themselves 
one  of  the  most  questionable  features  of  both  pewed  and 
free  churches  alike,  as  they  exist  among  us),  by  the 
adoption  of  chairs  in  their  stead,  by  the  multiplication 
of  services  at  such  hours  as  shall  meet  the  convenience 
of  different  classes  of  persons,  and,  above  all,  by  the 
strenuous  inculcation  of  the  Apostolic  doctrine  in  this 
matter,  a  sounder  sentiment  and  practice  will  come  to 
prevail,  while  individual  rights  will  be  preserved,  and 
individual  wants  will  be  adequately  provided  for. 

Toward  this  end,  it  is  my  earnest  prayer  that  the 
building  which  we  give  to-day  to  God  may  be  a  whole- 
some and  helpful  contribution.  Under  the  charge  of 
him  who  has  been  called  to  be  its  minister,  and  who 
has  elsewhere  made  of  a  free  church  so  thoroughly 
prosperous  and  successful  an  enterprise,  I  venture  to 
believe  that  we  may  look  for  results  worthy  of  his  past 
record,  and  of  the  opportunity  which  is  here  presented 
to  him.  For  one,  I  shall  rejoice  to  learn  from  his  ex- 
ample how  much  better  and  more  fruitful  than  any 
other  is  that  system  which  makes  a  church  free  and 
open  to  all  sorts  and  conditions   of   men,   and  which 


326  Waymarhs, 

recognizes  no  rights  of  property  within  its  walls  save 
His  whose,  by  Divine  right,  is  most  of  all  the  holy 
house  which  is  hallowed  to  His  worship  and  honor, 
even  as  it  is  called  by  His  holy  name! 

May  He  accept,  then,  the  gift  which  we  lay  at  His 
feet  to-day ;  and  may  He  inspire  us  all,  ministers  and 
people  alike,  with  a  deeper  and  heartier  desire  to  see 
and  recognize  our  duty  to  His  cause  and  kingdom  in  the 
world,  and  seeing  and  owning  it,  gladly  to  surrender 
every  prejudice,  every  prepossession,  every  selfish  in- 
terest that  may  stand  in  the  way  of  the  doing  of  it ! 


XIX. 

THE   FREE   CHURCH   A   WITNESS   TO  THE 
BROTHERHOOD   OF   HUMANITY. 

For  as  many  of  you  as  have  been  baptized  into  Christ  have 
2)ut  on  Christ.  There  is  neither  Jeiv  nor  Greek,  there  is 
neither  bond  nor  free,  there  is  neither  male  nor  female: 
for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ.  —  Galatians  iii.  27,  28. 

A  NEWSPAPER  in  this  city,  referring,  the  other  day,  to 
this  Annual  ]\Ieeting  of  the  Free-Church  Association, 
kindly  heralded  your  preacher  to  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  those  who  were  to  listen  to  him,  by  informing 
the  public  that  he  ministered  to  the  most  exclusive  con- 
gregation, who  themselves  worshipped  in  the  most  ex- 
pensive pews,  to  be  found  in  any  church  in  all  the 
land. 

If  a  cono^reo-ation  which  cheerfullv  welcomes  strano'ers 
by  hundreds  to  a  share  in  its  sittings  on  every  Lord's 
day  through  all  the  year,  a  congregation  in  which  single 
sittings  may  be  had  for  eight  dollars  a  year  and  a  pew 
for  twenty-five  dollars,  and  in  which  the  average  cost  of 
each  Sunday  service  to  each  sitting  in  the  church,  is  ten 
cents  per  service,  —  is  open  to  so  sweeping  a  charge  as  I 
have  referred  to,  then,  certainlv,  the  indictment  with 


328  Way  marks. 

which  he  who  speaks  to  you  to-night  has  been  welcomed 
to  this  place  is  true,  —  then,  and  not  otherwise. 

I  have  referred  to  it,  however,  not  because  such  a 
statement  is  of  sufficient  importance  to  merit  a  serious 
disclaimer,  but  becattse,  after  all,  though  so  ingeniously 
erroneous  in  fact,  it  is  so  eminently  suggestive  of  the 
conviction  which  lies  behind  it.  That  is  to  say,  it  may  be 
easy  to  prove  in  any  particular  instance  that  churches 
or  congregations  charged  with  being  exclusive  are  not 
exclusive,  —  that  certain  traditions  of  exclusiveness  that 
linger  about  them  have  long  ago  been  banished  by  a 
decenter  and  more  Christian  practice,  —  it  may  be  easy 
to  prove  that  in  this  or  that  church  the  clergy  have 
laid  down  certain  rules  as  to  the  hospitality  to  be  ex- 
ercised to  strangers  of  whatever  rank  and  in  whatever 
garb,  and  that  they  resolutely  maintain  the  observance 
of  such  rules.  But  all  this,  a  little  reflection  must  show 
one,  does  not  really  touch  the  root  of  the  matter.  That 
involves  the  question,  On  what  terms  is  a  worshipper  to 
be  admitted  to  God's  house  ?  Is  he  to  be  admitted 
there  upon  sufferance  as  the  tolerated  guest  of  some 
other  fellow-being,  who  owns  in  that  holy  place  an  ex- 
clusive right  to  the  occupancy  of  so  many  square  feet 
and  so  many  pounds  of  hair  pillows,  or  as  a  fellow-citi- 
zen of  the  household  of  God,  in  that  Divine  Republic 
in  which  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  Brahmin  nor 
Pariah,  bond  nor  free,  superior  sex  nor  inferior  sex 
(or,  as  the  Apostle  puts  it,  male  nor  female),  but  where 
men  are  all  one  in  Christ  ? 

In  other  words,  such  a  statement  as  I  have  referred 


The  Free   Church  A    Witness.  329 

to  is  significant,  whatever  may  have  been  the  motive 
that  in  any  particular  instance  has  happened  to  inspire 
it,  because  it  is  the  indication  of  a  popular  conviction ; 
and  that  conviction  is,  the  inconsistency  of  all  pewed 
churches,  however  hospitable  their  welcome  or  inexpen- 
sive their  accommodations,  with  the  Church's  doctrines 
and  her  Master's  teachings. 

For  no  man  can  read  those  teachings  without  straight- 
way seeing  that  they  are  at  war,  distinctly  and  unequivo- 
cally with  the  spirit  of  caste,  of  exclusiveness,  of  mutual 
suspicion  or  contempt.  Coming  in,  as  it  did,  upon  a  condi- 
tion of  imperial  despotism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  cring- 
ing servitude  on  the  other,  the  religion  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment sets  to  work  straightway  to  teach  the  world  the 
blessed  evangel  of  the  brotherhood  of  humanity  in  the 
liberating  and  ennobling  bond  of  a  common  Saviour  and 
Redeemer.  It  preaches  no  communism ;  it  denounces 
no  existing  government ;  it  undertakes  to  overthrow  or 
undermine  no  political  fabric.  "  Honor  all  men ;  love 
the  brotherhood ;  fear  God ;  honor  the  king."  This  is 
the  four-fold  legend  with  which  it  flings  its  blood-dyed 
banner  to  the  wind.  "  Servants,  obey  your  masters. 
Render  therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's.  Custom  to  whom  custom ;  honor  to  whom 
honor ;  fear  to  whom  fear.  Art  thou  called,  being  a 
servant  ?  Care  not  for  it.  .  .  .  For  he  that  is  called  in 
the  Lord,  being  a  servant,  is  Christ's  free  man."  In 
other  words,  Christianity  assailed  no  existing  social  in- 
stitutions from  without;  but  it  wrought  from  within, 
sanctifying  and  ennobling  individual  character.     It  rec- 


330  Waymarks. 

ognized,  what  you  and  I  must  recognize,  that  so  long- 
as  human  society  exists  there  will  exist  certain  inevi- 
table distinctions,  which  will  as  inevitably  perpetuate 
themselves,  in  spite  of  every  theory  and  every  endeavor, 
whether  of  Fourier  or  of  Brook  Farm,  to  do  away  w^ith 
them.  Wealth,  mental  ability,  force  of  will,  the  brain 
to  conceive  and  the  hand  to  execute,  "  the  genius  of  ad- 
ministration," as  some  one  has  called  it,  —  these  will 
rule  the  world,  and  possess  themselves  of  its  best  things 
by  virtue  of  the  authority  of  that  earlier  revelation 
which  God  has  written  not  in  a  book  but  in  the  brain, 
as  long  as  the  world  stands. 

I.  But  precisely  at  this  point  appears  the  function  or 
office  of  the  Church  of  God  in  the  w^orld.  What  is  the 
tendency  of  the  growth  of  wealth,  of  learning,  of  power, 
in  any  particular  class  ?  It  is  inevitably  to  produce  that 
thing  which  we  call  the  spirit  of  caste,  —  that  sentiment 
which  in  the  heart  of  an  oriental  becomes  at  length  a 
chronic  temper  of  scorn  and  disgust.  In  Malabar  to-day, 
a  Nayadi^  or  lower  caste  native,  defiles  a  Brahmin  if 
he  comes  within  seventy-four  paces  of  him.  A  Pariah 
is  so  called  because  formerly  he  was  obliged  to  wear  a 
bell  so  that  a  Brahmin  could  be  warned  of  his  approach 
and  thus  avoid  him.  We  smile,  perhaps,  at  these  follies 
of  other  races,  but  what  are  they,  after  all,  but  carica- 
tures of  what  exists  among  ourselves  ?  What  is  so 
imminent  a  danger  as  that,  when  wealth  and  refine- 
ment and  luxury  increase  among  a  people,  ignorance  and 
vice  and  degradation  shall  increase  with  them  ?  And 
what  has  been   the    result    of  this  growth  in  opposite 


The  Free    Church  A    Witness.  831 

directions  but  a  development  of  the  spirit  of  haughty  and 
heartless  indifference  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  impa- 
tience, envy,  and  resentment  on  the  other  ?  "  There  is  a 
tendency  at  work  among  us,"  wrote  an  English  man  of 
business  not  long  ago,  "  to  make  the  wall  of  moral 
separation  between  the  rich  and  the  poor  broader, 
higher,  and  more  impassable,  until  now  many  of  the  poor 
have  so  little  personal  acquaintance  or  intercourse  with 
the  rich  that  to  many  of  them  the  well-dressed  neigh- 
bors whom  they  meet  in  their  daily  walks  hardly  seem  to 
•be  their  own  fellow-beings,  with  one  single  passion,  trait, 
motive,  or  feeling  in  common  with  themselves."  Does 
any  one  to  whom  I  speak  and  who  has  seen  much  of  life 
in  our  great  cities  doubt  whether  or  no  such  a  spirit  of 
social  alienation  is  at  work  among  us  ?  And  is  any  one 
of  us  in  ignorance  as  to  what  sooner  or  later  it  will  pro- 
duce ?  If  so  let  him  read  the  history  of  the  French  Rev- 
olution, whether  of  1789,  or  1848,  and  he  will  realize 
what  bitter  and  bloody  fruit  the  growth  of  social  aliena- 
tion may  bring  forth. 

And  for  what  does  the  Church  of  God  exist  in  the 
world,  if  not  to  resist  and  rebuke  this  hateful  spirit  of 
caste  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  her  Master's  teaching,  if 
it  is  not  that,  whatever  inevitable  distinctions  exist  else- 
where, inside  the  household  of  the  common  Father,  and 
in  the  dear  fellowship  of  the  Divine  Elder  Brother, 
they  are  to  be  obliterated  and  forgotten.  How  of  old,  in 
that  flippant  Galatian  community  to  which  the  Apostle 
wrote  the  letter  from  which  I  take  my  text,  the  grave 
Israelite,  eaten  up  with  his  pride  of  race,  despised  the 


332  Waymarhs. 

laughter-loving   Greeks.     How  the    Roman    freedman 
scorned  and  insulted  the  slave  over  whom  at  last  he  had 
lifted  himself.     How  everywhere  in  that  old  world  man- 
hood spurned  and  degraded  and  enslaved  womanhood. 
Hearken  now  how,  into  the  midst  of  all  this  seething 
strife  of  caste,  comes  the  great-hearted  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles  crying,  "  There  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  bond 
nor  free,  male  nor  female  ;  for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ." 
It  is  a   message  which  the  Church  must  to-day  not 
only  preach  but  live.     When  a  few  years  ago  in  France 
the  Commune   of   Paris   murdered   its  venerable  arch- 
bishop, of   what  was   that  blind  and  bloody  deed   the 
expression  ?    Certainly  not  of  personal  animosity  toward 
a  pure   and  blameless   prelate  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,   who,   according   to    universal   testimony,   had 
lived   an   unspotted   and   exemplary  life.     No !    but   of 
resentment  toward  that  thing  which  called   itself   re- 
ligion, of   which,  in   their   eyes,   that   feeble  old    man 
was  the  representative,  —  a  thing  which  baptized  itself 
with  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  claimed  to  have  come  to 
teach  the  world  the  Master's  new  command   of  love, 
but  which,  as  they  knew  it,  had  strengthened  the  reign 
of  caste,  had  neglected  the  poor  and  the  outcast,  and 
had   cringed    and   bowed   down   to    wealth    and  vulgar 
power.     And  so  these  men  had  reasoned,  and  reasoned 
rightly, "  If   this  be    religion  we  want  no  more  of  it ! 
Away  with  it,  and  with  its  lordly  and  arrogant  represen- 
tatives !  "     Now,  then,  I  have  no  slightest  apprehension 
that  if  we  in  America  perpetuate  and  foster  the  pew- 
system,  any  bishop,  priest,  or  deacon  will  ever  enjoy  the 


The  Free   Church  A    Witness.  333 

doubtful  honors  of  martyrdom  therefor ;  but  this  I  do 
venture  to  predict,  that  if,  in  this  or  any  other  matter, 
we  continue  to  lend  ourselves  to  the  spirit  of  caste,  we 
shall,  as  a  church,  sooner  or  later  find  ourselves  with- 
out a  flock  to  feed  or  souls  to  guide.  Little  by  little 
the  spirit  of  alienation  will  do  its  deadening  work,  and 
one  day  w^e  shall  wake  up  to  find  that  in  our  excessive 
anxiety  for  the  heathen  in  Walnut  Street  and  on  Murray 
Hill  we  have  lost  all  hold  upon  the  living  heart  of  that 
great  human  mass  which  makes  up  the  people. 

But  at  this  point  it  may  very  justly  be  asked.  How 
does  all  this  bear  upon  the  present  condition  of  things 
in  our  ordinary  parish  churches  ?  Is  it  a  criminal  in- 
dictment of  the  pew-system  as  it  exists,  anywhere  and 
everywhere  alike,  and  of  those  who  maintain  or  acqui- 
esce in  it  ?  Most  distinctly,  no.  A  criminal  indictment 
implies  a  criminal  intention,  and  in  producing  that  result 
which  we  find  in  the  Church  to-day  there  has  been  no 
criminal  intention  whatever.  The  first  pews  in  England, 
as  Archibald  Hale  shows  in  his  quaint  book,  "  A  series 
of  Precedents  illustrative  of  the  Discipline  of  the  Church 
of  England,"  were  undoubtedly  simple  sittings,  introduced 
for  the  aged  and  infirm  ;  and  Hale  mentions  that  "  so 
late  as  1617  it  was  considered  an  offence  for  a  young 
lady  to  be  seated  with  her  mother."  But  while  in  England 
the  modern  pew  was  the  result  of  the  steady  encroach- 
ments of  wealth  and  class-feeling,  their  introduction  into 
our  own  land  was  certainly  free  from  any  motive  of  ex- 
clusion. From  the  beginning  churches  were  pewed  in 
these  colonies,  and  a  pew-tax  was  assessed  as  the  sim- 


334  Waymarks, 

plest  and  most  obvious  method  of  providing  a  revenue. 
It  is    true  that  the  pews  and  the  taxes  both  implied  a 
double  proscription  of  the  poor.     They  must  sit  in  the 
gallery,  and  they  must  pay  a  rental  for  their  pews  or  be 
liable  to  be  turned  out  of  them.     But  class-distinctions 
seemed  natural  enough  to  a  people  who,  though  they  had 
renounced  their  allegiance  to  a  king,  were  yet  trained  to 
revere  rank  and  to  give  way  to  a  titled  aristocracy.  Our 
ancestors  called  themselves  Republicans  in  1776,  but  it 
was  a  long  time  after  that  before  the  influences  of  nurture 
under  a  king  and  his  courtiers  ceased  to  assert  them- 
selves.   Meantime,  however,  the  pew-system,  inherited  as 
it  was  from  our  mother  Church  beyond  the  seas,  became 
with  us  the   exponent  of  an  entirely  different  feeling. 
In  England,  a  nobleman's  pew  stood  for  the  precedence 
of  rank,  —  a  precedence  often  won  by  heroic  deeds  and 
a  long  line  of  distinguished  ancestry.     With  us  it  has 
come  to  stand  simply  for  wealth,  —  however  acquired 
and  however  used.     The  best  pew  is  for  the  man  who 
will  pay  the  best  price  for  it ;  and  so,  to  the  common 
mind,  the  Church  seems  to  be  saying  that,  not  eminent 
services,  not  saintly  living,  not  age  nor  worth  shall  have 
foremost  place  and  utmost  honor,  but  simply  he  who,  by 
whatever  means,  has  acquired  the  most  money.     This  is 
the  point  to  which  the  Church  has   come,  not  of  delib- 
erate purpose,  but  by  a  process  of  unconscious  drifting. 
It  is  not  that  the  Church  has  created  the  pew-system  to 
perpetuate   castes   and  to  exclude  the  poor,  it  is  that 
others  have  taken  advantage  of  a  system  already  in  ex< 
istence  to  use   it  for  selfish   and   worldly   ends.      But 


The  Free   Church  A   Witness.  335 

while  these  facts  exonerate  the  Church  from  any  worldly 
or  unchristian  or  exclusive  design,  and  therefore  from 
any  criminal  intent,  it  does  not  excuse  it  from  responsi- 
bility for  that  which  though  not  a  crime  is  an  evil,  —  an 
evil  which  has  grown  up  within  the  Church's  very  walls, 
and  whose  proportions  and  influences  are  now  such  that 
it  must  be  resolutely  and  courageously  dealt  with. 

II.  And  this  opens  the  way  for  the  further  question, 
How  are  we  to  deal  with  this  evil  V  To  that  question,  I 
would  answer,  in  the  first  place,  Not,  certainly,  by  hurling 
denunciations.  Much  has  been  written  and  said  about 
the  clergy  who  minister  and  the  people  who  worship  in 
pewed  churches,  to  provoke  contempt  from  the  one  and 
resentment  from  the  other.  When  a  clergyman  is  called 
to  the  cure  of  souls  in  a  pewed  church  which  he  neither 
built  nor  planned  and  for  whose  internal  financial  regu- 
lations he  has  had  no  slightest  responsibility,  it  will  not 
help  to  enlist  him  in  efforts  toward  the  introduction  of 
a  better  system  than  the  pewed  system  —  it  will  not  en- 
courage him  to  efforts  for  reform  - —  to  insinuate  that  he 
is  maintaining  an  evil  (which  often  he  is  quite  powerless 
to  remedy)  merely  in  his  own  selfish  interests.  No  man 
honors  those  faithful  and  self-denying  men  who  have 
identified  themselves  with  the  free-church  movement 
more  than  I  do ;  but  they  have  not  strengthened  their 
cause  nor  commended  it  to  others  by  the  readiness  with 
which  some  of  them  have  been  willing  to  liint  that  their 
brethren  in  pewed  churches  were  more  concerned  about 
a  comfortable  maintenance  than  for  the  honor  of  God 
and  for  the  salvation  of   souls.     Do  those   who  speak 


336  Wayrnarks. 

bitter  words  about  pewed  churches  and  about  the  pew 
system  understand  that,  in  cities  at  any  rate,  pews  are 
often  valuable  pieces  of  property,  and  that  the  bald  pro- 
position absolutely  to  surrender  them  would  be  greeted  in 
most  cases,  at  first,  simply  with  good-natured  ridicule  ? 
Do  they  know  that  such  property  has  often  been  inherited 
from  generation  to  generation,  and  that  a  proposal  to 
surrender  it  to  common  use  sounds,  to  many  persons, 
like  a  proposition  to  convert  the  family  burial-place  into 
a  part  of  the  public  highway.  I  believe  it  is  true  that 
the  venerable  corporation  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York, 
has  for  years  been  endeavoring  to  acquire,  either  by  gift 
or  purchase,  a  title  to  its  pews  so  as  to  make  the  sittings 
in  that  noble  edifice  as  free  in  name  as  they  are  in  fact. 
But  it  has  been  found  that  such  a  proposition  is  met, 
even  by  those  who  have  long  ceased  to  worship  in  those 
pews,  very  much  as  one  would  greet  a  scheme  for  paving 
the  streets  with  the  family  tombstones.  Now,  then, 
pray  do  not  let  us  waste  our  breath  by  denouncing  such 
a  feeling  as  irrational,  as  puerile,  as  a  mere  prejudice. 
Of  course  it  is  a  mere  prejudice.  But  you  cannot  drive 
the  plough-share  of  revolution  through  cherished  and 
inherited  prejudices  without  turning  up  something  else 
ihan  a  kindly  soil  in  which  to  sow  the  seeds  of  reform. 
Wrongs  must  sometimes  be  righted  by  revolution,  but 
evils  will  be  corrected  just  so  fast  as,  and  no  faster  than, 
you  can  enlighten  and  educate  any  prejudiced  mass  of 
people  to  a  clearer  vision  of  the  truth. 

111.    And  this  leads  me  to  speak,  finally,  of  those  obsta- 
cles which  such  education  and  enlightenment  must  set 


The  Free   Church  A   Witness.  337 

itself  to  remove.  One  of  these  I  have  already  indicated 
as  that  right  of  property  which  so  many  persons  have  been 
led  to  entertain  and  even  sacredly  to  cherish  in  connec- 
tion with  the  possession  of  a  pew.     Another  is  — 

(a)  That  reluctance  to  submit  one's  self  to  personal 
discomfort  which  is  undoubtedly  a  powerful  factor  in  the 
sum  total  of  the  ordinary  hostility  to  the  pew  system. 
Now  it  is  the  fashion  to  denounce  this  feeling  as  utterly 
unworthy  of  any  one  who  professes  and  calls  himself  a 
Christian  ;  and  I  have  heard  a  clergyman,  when  it  had 
been  mildly  intimated  that  cleanly  habits  and  personal 
neatness  were  not  unworthy  of  being  considered  in  a 
congregation  where  every  one  had  equal  rights,  unctu- 
ously rebuke  such  a  suggestion  with  the  remark  that 
"  God  did  not  look  to  see  whether  people  were  clean  or 
dirty  when  they  came  into  His  house,  and  that  we  ought 
to  be  glad  to  get  them  there  upon  any  terms."  To  be 
sure,  the  assumption  as  to  what  God  cares  for,  especially 
in  view  of  what  an  inspired  Apostle  has  to  say  in  this 
connection  about  having  our  bodies  washed  with  pure 
water,  is  a  somewhat  bold  one  ;  but  the  real  value  of  such 
a  remark  becomes  chiefly  apparent  the  moment  you  con- 
sider the  standpoint  from  which  it  is  made.  The  bishop 
sits  in  his  throne  (I  believe  we  call  them  thrones  now-a- 
days),  and  the  priest  sits  in  his  stall,  or  chair,  and  the 
deacon  sits  in  his  chair.  As  an  officiating  clergyman  1 
never  sat  in  a  pew  in  my  life,  save  in  a  church  in  New 
England,  where  there  was  a  preacher's  pew  in  which  the 
preacher  sat,  and  in  which  no  one  else  might  ever,  under 
any  possible  circumstances,  sit  with  him.     In  a  word,  no 

22 


338  Waymarks. 

one  ever  crowds  the  bishop  or  the  presbyter  or  the 
deacon.  Their  rights  of  sitting  are  reserved.  Their 
class-privileges  are  sacredly  guarded,  and  the  encroach- 
ments of  some  portlier  neighbor  upon  their  twenty-two 
inches  of  pew-room  never  makes  it  necessary  for  them  to 
cry,  with  a  new  sense  of  the  Prophet's  meaning,  "  Oh,  my 
leanness  !  my  leanness ! "  And  therefore  one  cannot 
help  feeling  that  there  is  a  little  bit  of  pharisaism  in 
that  facility  with  which  the  clergy  urge  upon  the  laity 
the  unseemliness  of  objecting  because  one  cannot  sit  in 
a  particular  seat,  or  have  just  so  much  room  in  which  to 
stand  or  kneel.  No  one  ought  to  know  better  than  a 
clergyman  that  one  cannot  worship  to  edification  so 
long  as  some  physical  discomfort  is  painfully  reminding 
him  of  his  body.  "  I  set  my  face  toward  the  East,"  says 
the  author  of  Eothen  somewhere  (1  do  not  undertake 
to  quote  his  exact  words),  "  and  I  travelled  on,  and  on, 
and  on,  until  I  might  come  to  a  race  of  people  that  did 
not  sit  in  petvs.^^  Suggestive  pilgrimage  !  which,  if  not 
as  religious  in  its  professed  object  as  some  others,  was 
yet,  I  verily  believe,  the  outcome  of  a  genuine  need  and 
of  a  devout  instinct.  It  was  Daniel  Webster  who  said 
that  he  regarded  the  survival  of  Christianity  after  having 
been  preached  for  so  many  generations  in  tub-pulpits  as 
a  most  signal  evidence  of  its  Divine  origin.  Even  so 
it  must  often  have  occurred  to  many  another  to  question 
whether  the  survival  of  tlie  instinct  of  worship  amid  the 
evils  and  the  injustices  of  pews  is  not  a  similar  evidence 
of  the  Divine  origin  of  that  instinct.  If  free  and  open 
churches  are  ever  Avidelv  to  obtain  anions;  us,  I  believe 
it  will  be  because  we  have  constructed  and  furnished 


The  Free   Church  A   Witness.  839 

them  with  chairs  instead  of  pews,  and  have  educated 
those  who  gather  in  them  to  that  brotherly  considera- 
tion for  others  which  will  strive  to  free  occasions  of 
close  personal  proximity  from  every  needless  condition 
of  personal  annoyance. 

(6)  But  besides  the  questions  of  so-called  rights  of 
property  and  personal  discomfort  there  is  in  the  popular 
mind  this  further  opposition  to  the  abandonment  of  pews, 
that  it  involves  ordinarily  the  separation  of  families. 
Here  again  let  me  say  that  if  we  are  ever  to  have  any 
widespread  success  in  the  free-church  movement,  this 
prejudice  —  if  prejudice  it  is  —  must  be  fairly  and  gen- 
erously dealt  with.  No  change  in  our  customs  of  wor- 
ship which  seems  rudely  to  ignore  the  instincts  or  affec- 
tions of  the  family  will  ever  make  successful  progress, 
nor  does  it  deserve  to.  Old  as  is  the  Church,  the  family 
is  older,  and  if  the  one  is  a  Divine  institution  no  less 
is  the  other  so.  We  shall  do  best,  I  venture  to  think, 
if  we  strive  to  adjust  ourselves  to  the  wishes  and  accom- 
modate the  preferences,  of  parents  and  children  in  this 
matter;  and  the  friends  of  free  churches  in  England 
have  shown  their  w^isdom  by  endeavoring  to  do  so.  In 
the  Church  Congress  at  Stoke  two  years  ago  one  of  the 
speakers  at  the  meeting,  in  the  interests  of  free  and 
open  churches,  argued  for  an  annual  assignment  of  sit- 
tings by  lot ;  and  another  showed  with  much  ingenuity 
how,  in  a  crowded  parish  church,  such  as  was  instanced 
at  St.  Martin's,  Scarborough,  it  was  simply  necessary  to 
anticipate  a  little  the  hour  of  attending  upon  Divine 
service  in  order  to  secure  for  any  family  a  certain  num- 
ber of  contiguous  sittings.     For  instance,  according  to 


340  Waymarhs. 

the  calculation  of  this  speaker,  in  the  church  referred 
to,  a  family  of  sixteen  might  sit  together  if  they  went  to 
church  fifteen  minutes  before  church-time ;  that  eight 
might  sit  together  if  they  went  ten  minutes  before,  and 
so  on.  It  is  by  such  homely  but  practical  solutions  of 
such  a  difficulty  as  this,  that  objections  are  best  met 
and  prejudices  allayed. 

(c)  I  do  not  forget,  1  need  hardly  say,  that  there  are 
still  others  of  a  graver  nature  and  of  a  more  unyielding 
character.  There  are  the  questions  of  support,  and  of 
revenue  for  church  purposes,  outside  of  the  parish  as 
well  as  in  it,  which  I  think  it  must  candidly  be  admitted 
have  been  most  imperfectly  solved.  If  free  churches  have 
been  successful  in  maintaining  themselves  (and  they 
have  not  always  done  that),  they  have  as  yet  done  little 
more.  And,  what  is  most  discouraging  of  all,  the  move- 
ment has  as  yet  made  but  the  slightest  impression  upon 
the  great  mass  of  our  prosperous,  well-to-do  Church 
people.  These  do  not  believe  in  it  and  do  not  want  it. 
We  may  as  well  face  the  fact.  The  clergy  who  minister 
to  them  are  doubtful  about  the  principle,  and  distrustful 
about  its  practical  working.  And  yet  the  co-operation 
of  these  two  classes  is  indispensable  to  ultimate  success. 

How  shall  we  secure  such  co-operation  ?  I  answer, 
first  by  invoking  it,  and  then  by  deserving  it !  We  must 
seek  for  and  ask  for  the  sympathy  of  all  good  men, 
whether  they  worship  in  pewed  churches  or  in  free 
churches,  and  we  must  deserve  their  sympathy  by  the 
loving  fidelity  with  which  we  preach  and  live  the  Apos- 
tle's doctrine  of  the  common  brotherhood  of  all  men, 


The  Free   Church  A    Witness.  341 

everywhere,  in  their  common  Lord.  There  is  a  mediaeval 
legend  of  a  priest  who,  knocking  at  a  peasant's  door, 
finds  his  sovereign  seated  at  meat  at  the  peasant's  table. 
So  great  is  his  surprise  that  he  cannot  but  express  his 
apprehension  as  to  the  effect  of  such  excessive  conde- 
scension. "  But,"  answers  the  King,  "  do  we  not  meet 
as  brothers  about  the  table  of  a  common  Lord,  yonder  in 
the  place  where  you  are  wont  to  minister?  And  if  I 
own  that  brotherhood  so  freely  there,  shall  I  not  some- 
times own  it  elsewhere  also  ? "  It  Avas  an  answer 
which,  homely  as  it  seemed,  contained  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  the  whole  matter.  If  they  for  whom  Christ 
died  are  brethren,  then  let  those  who  say  so  show  the 
world  that  they  believe  it.  No  mere  toleration  of  the 
poor  or  the  unrefined  or  the  uneducated  will  do  this. 
No  mere  spasm  of  occasional  condescension,  whether  in 
church  or  out  of  it,  will  do  it  either.  Nothing  will  do 
it  save  a  new  and  mightier  baptism  of  that  Divine  Spirit 
of  love  and  self-forgetfulness  for  which  even  now  the 
Church  is  waiting  !  And  therefore,  first  of  all,  men  and 
brethren,  let  us  long  and  look  and  pray  for  that !  Let 
us  cry  straight  up  to  heaven,  ay,  let  the  whole  Church 
lift  up  her  voice  to  Him  who  is  her  living  Lord  and 
Head,  for  such  a  Pentecostal  breath  of  life  and  fire  as 
shall  shrivel  and  burn  up  every  pitiful  prejudice,  every 
lingering  residuum  of  exclusion,  every  last  and  smallest 
vestige  of  self-will  and  self-love.  For  then,  believe  me, 
the  pew-doors  will  fly  open,  because,  first  of  all,  God  has 
made  the  hearts  and  the  hands  that  now  hold  them  shut 
to  fly  wide  open  also ! 


AGENCIES  OF   REVIVAL. 

In  the  year  1882  American  Churchmen  were  refreshed 
and  stimulated  by  a  visit  from  Canon  Knox-Little,  who 
conducted  a  Retreat  for  the  Clergy  at  St.  Philip's  in  the 
Highlands;  and  soon  afterwards  one  or  more  parochial 
^^  missions  "  were,  for  the  first  time,  held  in  parishes  in  the 
United  States.  To  most  Churchmen  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  the  parochial  mission  was  unknown,  and  its 
characteristics,  so  far  as  they  were  currently  reported,  led  it 
to  be  regarded  with  suspicion.  These  characteristics  were 
considered  as  not  greatly  differing  from  those  which  had 
been  popularly  associated  with  revivals  and  revivalism  as 
these  have  long  obtained  in  many  religious  bodies  in 
America,  and  were  such  as  had  made  themselves  widely 
obnoxious  to  severe  criticism.  The  effort  to  introduce 
informal  services,  meetings  for  inquiry,  services  for  men, 
and  other  novel  features,  as  it  had  encountered  decided 
opposition  in  England,  did  not  escape  it  here.  Indeed,  the 
opposition  was  in  many  instances  the  more  strenuous 
because,  in  the  United  States,  the  evils  have  been  more 
familiar. 

But  it  was  still  believed  that  even  in  the  Church,  with  her 
ample  equipment,  the  parochial  mission  had  a  place;  and  the 
missions  conducted  by  Canon  Knox-Little,  and  later,  by  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Aitkin,  general  missioner  of  the  Church  of 
England  Parochial  Missions  Society,  who  visited  the  United 
States  during  the  following  year,  made  it  evident  that  that 
for  which  their  work  stood  had  a  use  and  fitness  for  its 
place  within  the  Church's  lines.     A  mission  in  the  city  of 


Agencies  of  Revival.  343 

New  York  during  Advent  of  the  year  1885,  in  which  a  large 
number  of  parishes  shared,  issued,  on  the  whole  so  en- 
couragingly that  it  was  determined  to  found  an  American 
Parochial  Missions  Society,  having  the  same  general  objects  as 
its  English  parent.  This  was  done  during  the  same  year,  and 
the  sermon  which  follows  was  preached  on  the  occasion  of  its 
fifth  anniversary,  December  16th,  1890,  at  St.  Bartholomew's 
Church,  New  York.  The  society  has  one  general  missioner 
and  nearly  forty  missioners  and  assistant  missioners,  all  but 
the  first  of  whom  are  parochial  clergy.  These  are  called 
upon  to  leave  their  parishes  from  time  to  time  and  go  to  the 
point  where  a  mission  is  desired,  and  conduct  a  series  of 
special  services,  of  which  they  have,  in  each  case,  exclusive 
charge  and  direction,  — the  original  arrangement,  of  course, 
having  been  entered  into  with  the  cordial  consent  and 
co-operation  of  the  rector. 

In  some  instances  these  services  are  little  more  than 
frequent  sermons,  preceded  by  the  appointed  daih^  morning 
and  evening  prayer.  In  no  case  are  these  omitted.  In  some 
cases,  more  informal  meetings,  conferences,  personal  counsels, 
short  addresses,  mission  hymns  and  prayers,  other  than 
those  contained  in  the  Prayer-Book  or  Hymnal,  have  been 
used.  But  there  has  never  been  any  effort  merely  to  j^ro- 
duce  emotional  excitement;  and  preaching  and  devotion, 
while  seeking  to  awaken  and  arouse,  have  always  aimed  to 
instruct. 

The  movement  is  still  too  young  to  afford  ground  for 
a  final  judgment  in  regard  to  it.  But  two  things  have 
impressed  those  who  have  watched  it  most  closely;  the  first 
of  which  is  its  unexpected  welcome  in  all  cases  where 
people  have  observed  and  noted  its  operations  continuously. 
Prejudice  has  been  strong  in  many  reverent  minds,  which  have 
honestlj^  dreaded  its  effect  in  vulgarizing  sacred  things. 
But  such  persons  have,  as  a  rule,  gladly  owned  its  efficacy  in 
awakening  and  deepening  reverent  instincts  and  serious  im- 


344  Waymarhs. 

pressions.  This  has  been  especiaHy  true  in  connection  with 
a  higher  estimate  and  more  frequent  use  of  the  Holy 
Communion. 

Another  effect  has  been  evident,  not  so  much  in  the  con- 
gregations who  were  the  objects  of  the  missions  as  in  the 
clergy  who  have  conducted  them.  These  have,  in  many 
instances,  developed  gifts  and  aptitudes  as  preachers  which 
there  is  no  probability  that  the  routine  of  an  ordinary 
ministry  would  have  called  forth ;  and  the  Church,  at  least  in 
some  of  its  greater  centres,  is  richer  to-day  because  of  this 
work,  not  alone  for  what  it  has  done,  but  scarcely  less 
for  what  it  has  discovered. 


XX. 

AGENCIES   OF   REVIVAL. 

In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist  crying,  Repent  ye ! 
.  .  .  And  the  people  asked  him,  saying,  What  shall  ice 
do,  then?  —  Matt.  iii.  1,  2  ;  Luke  iii.  10-14. 

This  is  the  anniversary,  and  we  are  gathered  this 
evening  in  the  interests  of  the  Parochial  Missions 
Society.  It  will  clear  the  air  a  little  if  I  explain  its 
title,  and  define  its  aims.  It  is  not  "  parochial  "  in  the 
sense  of  being  connected  with  any  parish.  It  is  not  a 
missionary  organization  in  the  sense  of  supporting  a 
body  of  missionaries;  and  it  is  not  a  society  in  the 
sense  of  having  any  other  than  the  most  informal  and 
elementary  organization. 

But  it  represents  those  in  the  Anglican  communion 
and  in  our  own,  who  recognize  the  necessity  of  at  least 
occasionally  supplementing  the  ordinary  agencies  and 
ministries  of  the  Church  with  others,  which,  going 
only  and  always  with  the  consent  and  on  the  invitation 
of  those  who  are  charged  with  its  care  into  any  parish 
when  they  may  be  so  bidden,  bring  to  it  a  fresh  voice, 
direct  appeal,  frequent  services,  personal  contact,  in- 
formal meetings  for  prayer  and  for  inquiry,  and  such 


346  Way  marks. 

other  quickening  methods  as  experience  and  observa- 
tion have  tested  and  vindicated.  In  other  words, 
obnoxious  as  the  term  may  be  to  some,  I  know  none 
better  to  describe  the  work  of  which  we  have  come  here 
to-night  to  hear,  than  to  call  it  a  Revival  Agency. 

As  such,  one  can  easily  understand  the  surprise,  if 
not  disapproval,  which  it  will  awaken  in  many  minds, 
especially  in  this  land,  in  our  own  day,  and  in  our  own 
branch  of  the  Church  Catholic. 

For  in  this  land  revival  agencies  in  the  domain  of 
religion  are  no  new  thing.  It  would  be  impossible 
intelligently  to  write  the  religous  history  of  the  United 
States  without  taking  into  account  that  feature  of  it  for 
which  revivalism  stands.  Not  in  one  sect  or  com- 
munion alone,  but  in  almost  all,  its  methods  have  ob- 
tained and  its  results  have  been  strenuously  sought. 
Among  some  bodies  of  Christians  its  work  is  that 
which  is  chiefly  valued  and  most  largely  counted  upon 
for  all  growth  or  enlargement,  and  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that,  for  considerably  more  than  a  century,  and 
in  some  of  our  most  numerous  religious  bodies,  all 
other  agencies,  so  far  as  their  aggressive  work  is  con- 
cerned, are  considered  as  of  but  secondary  and  insig- 
nificant value. 

An  agency  which  has  been  thus  employed  and 
esteemed  for  more  than  a  hundred  years  has  made  a 
record  for  itself,  and  may  now,  at  any  rate,  be  dispas- 
sionately and  impartially  judged.  And  one  need  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying,  however  estimable  are  the  aims 
and  spirit   of  those  who  have  employed   it,    that  the 


Agencies  of  Revival.  347 

result  of  such  judgment  on  the  part  of  a  vast  and  con- 
stantly increasing  body  of  devout  and  thoughtful  people, 
both  within  and  without  those  communions  in  which  it 
has  been  employed,  is  that,  on  the  whole,  and  as  it  has 
hitherto  existed  among  us,  what  is  known  as  the  revi- 
val system  is,  both  in  many  of  its  characteristics  and 
its  results,  largely  vicious  and  evil.  It  has  exalted 
emotionalism  at  the  expense  of  deliberation  in  choice 
and  conscientious  purpose  in  action.  It  has  appealed 
to  the  feelings  rather  than  to  the  judgment,  and  has 
swayed  the  passions  more  than  the  reason.  It  has 
aimed  at  producing  a  spasm  rather  than  a  conviction, 
and  it  has,  too  often,  accepted  mere  physical  excitement 
in  the  place  of  reformation  of  character.  Oftener 
than  otherwise  it  has  been  heated  and  noisy,  rather 
than  serious  and  chastened,  and  its  effects  have  been 
very  frequently  doubted  or  distrusted,  unless  they  illus- 
trated themselves  in  extravagance  of  speech,  and  vehe- 
mence of  that  "  bodily  exercise  "  which  the  Apostle  yet 
declares  "profiteth  nothing."  These  have  been  among 
its  conspicuous  notes  or  traits.  Its  results  have  been 
no  less  marked. 

The  inevitable  reaction  which  follows  any  unusual 
excitement  of  the  emotions,  has  been  followed  in  its 
turn,  in  what  is  to  be  found  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  by  a  profound  apathy,  not  only  of  the  religious 
sentiment,  but  of  the  personal  conscience;  and  to-day 
whole  regions  of  country  are  commonly  alleged  to  bear 
witness  in  their  complete  indifference  to  both  the  moral 
and  the  spiritual,  or  devotional,  elements  of  religion, 
to  the  desolating  effects  of  the  revival  system. 


348  Waymarks. 

At  such  a  moment  it  may  well  be  asked,  What  does 
this  Church  want  with  an  agency  so  unwholesome,  with 
methods  so  thoroughly  discredited  ?  Certainly  if  this 
is  all  of  it,  it  may  well  want  to  have  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  it.  But  at  this  point  the  question  is  cer- 
tainly not  an  improper  one,  "  Is  this  all  of  it  ? " 
What  is  the  revival  system,  not  as  it  has  sometimes 
been  travestied  and  perverted,  but  as  Christian  history 
describes  and  defines  it  ? 

For  our  purpose,  one  illustration,  by  way  of  answer  to 
that  question,  is  as  good  as  a  hundred ;  and  so  I  take  that 
one  which  is  presented  in  the  verses  which  I  have  read 
as  the  text.  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  estimate 
put  by  Christ  himself  upon  the  ministry  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist, and  there  can  be  as  little  concerning  the  general 
character  of  that  ministry.  It  departed  in  every  partic- 
ular from  the  ordinary  and  orderly  ministries  of  the 
time.  Judged  by  our  standards,  or  by  those  then  prevail- 
ing, it  was  distinctly  sensational.  It  aimed  to  arouse, 
to  alarm,  to  denounce,  to  scourge.  And  its  effects  were 
in  accordance  with  its  aims.  If  we  should  describe 
them  in  the  phraseology  of  our  own  time,  we  should  say 
that  there  was,  in  that  part  of  Syria  where  John  the 
Baptist  preached,  a  great  religious  awakening,  and  it 
would  be  to  misrepresent  the  whole  situation,  as  the 
New  Testament  has  preserved  the  story  of  it,  if  we  did 
not  go  on  to  say  that  the  greatest  religious  movement 
which  the  world  has  seen  turned,  as  its  first  hinge, 
upon  this  same  religious  awakening. 

There  have  been  repetitions  of  it  all  the  way  along. 


Agencies  of  Revival.  849 

Whether  it  is  Peter  the  Hermit,  or  Francis  of  Assisi, 
or  Savonarola,  or  John  Huss,  or  John  Wesley,  the 
thing  is  too  familiar  to  be  ignored  or  wholly  dises- 
teemed;  and  no  effort  to  distinguish  between  great 
national  or  ecclesiastical  movements,  occurring  at  long 
intervals,  and  an  agency  to  be  employed  in  connection 
with  the  ordinary  on-going  of  parish  life,  though  such 
a  distinction  is  one  which  we  are  bound  to  recognize, 
can  dismiss  from  our  rightful  consideration  such  agen- 
cies as  we  are  here  to-night  to  plead  for.  In  one  sense, 
the  case  of  a  parish  and  the  case  of  a  church  or  a  nation 
are  widely  different ;  but  in  another  they  are  identical. 
The  same  slumbrous  torpor,  the  same  deadness  to  spir- 
itual truths,  the  same  triumph  of  the  spirit  of  worldli- 
ness  over  the  spirit  of  Christ,  exist  in  one  as  in  the 
other.  It  is,  after  all,  only  a  question  of  extent  or 
degree ;  and  the  exigencies  of  parochial  life  in  particu- 
lar communities  often  make  that  necessary,  in  some 
single  congregation,  which,  under  other  circumstances, 
may  widely  if  not  universally  be  necessary. 

But  what  is  it  that  is  necessary  ?  or,  in  other  \rords, 
what  is  it  that  such  an  association  as  this  aims  to  do  ? 
As  it  is  profoundly  sensible  of  the  evil  features  and 
often  more  evil  accessories  of  the  modern  system  of 
revivalism,  it  ought  hardly  to  be  necessary  to  say  that 
it  does  not  propose  to  borrow  or  to  revive  these.  As 
it  is  equally  sensible  of  what  I  may  call  the  distinc- 
tive traditions  of  this  Church,  —  traditions,  let  me 
say,  which,  however  ridiculed  or  travestied,  have  been, 
as   I   believe,    a   large   element   of    her   strength   and 


350  Wat/marks. 

glory,  and  which  no  intelligent  man  will  disesteem; 
traditions  which  bind  her  to  reverence,  to  ritual  order, 
to  the  resolute  restraint  of  the  vagaries  of  individualism 
in  worship,  to  the  systematic  teaching  of  the  young, 
and  to  the  whole  scheme  of  Christian  nurture  as  the 
true  ideal  of  the  Church's  life  and  growth,  —  as,  I  say, 
this  society  is  equally  sensible  of  the  Church's  tradi- 
tion in  regard  to  all  these  things,  it  is  not  here,  I  need 
hardly  say,  to  flout  or  undervalue  them.  But  it  is  here 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  that  very  order  and  system 
which  are  typically  and  pre-eminently  represented  in 
what  we  call  the  sequence  of  the  Christian,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  secular  year,  itself  presents  to  us 
conspicuous  features  which  stand,  substantially,  for 
just  what  we  stand  for.  In  other  words.  Advent  and 
Lent,  whatever  else  they  mean,  mean  pre-eminently 
that  the  ordinary  crust  of  an  ordinary  life  must  be 
broken  up,  once  and  again,  by  that  which  forces  itself 
in  upon  it  with  calls  that  are  sharp,  personal,  and 
searching, —  by  hymns  and  litanies,  by  Scriptures  and 
sermons,  Avhich  deal  with  sin  and  spiritual  insensibil- 
ity, and  an  alienated  and  a  sense-loving  life.  Ash- 
Wednesday!  We  have  lost  the  sackcloth  and  the 
cinders  out  of  our  life,  —  though  I  should  think  that 
sometimes  some  of  those  silly  souls  of  both  sexes  that 
are  eaten  up  with  the  vanity  of  personal  upholstery 
and  tailor-made  frippery  would  ache,  for  very  contrast, 
to  fly  to  them,  —  we  have  lost,  I  say,  the  sackcloth 
and  the  cinders  out  of  our  life,  but  certainly  we 
have    not    come    to    disesteem    what    Ash-Wednesday 


Agencies  of  Revival.  351 

and  all  the  thirty-nine  days  that  follow  it  stand  for. 
There  is  no  honest  and  earnest  soul  —  honest  with  it- 
self and  earnest  toward  God  —  that  does  not  cry  out, 
sometimes  at  any  rate,  for  something  from  without  to 
come  in  upon  the  dull,  dead,  monotony  of  its  indul- 
gences and  its  softnesses,  and  with  stern  hand  to  shake 
it  free  from  the  unutterable  pettiness  and  self-seeking 
of  which  its  life  is  so  full.  Go  into  some  great  hall 
where  a  throng  of  hungry-eyed  people  are  waiting  for 
some  new  voice  to  stir  and  thrill  them ;  and  when  you 
have  discounted  the  vagrant  curiosity  and  the  unoccu- 
pied speculation,  and  the  ecclesiastical  rounderdom  that 
contributes  so  largely  to  all  such  assemblages,  there 
still  remains  a  vast  multitude  of  people  who  are  hun- 
gry for  the  word  of  command,  and  whom  no  eccentricity 
of  costume  or  absurdity  of  pretension  will  quite  repel,  if 
only  they  can  find,  what,  alas,  they  so  rarely  find,  behind 
all  this  very  human  mannerism  or  self-consciousness, 
some  few  moments,  even,  of  that  "rapt  vision  of  God," 
when  an  earnest  soul  is  caught  up,  with  an  Apostle  of 
old,  and  speaks  as  with  tones  not  of  earth  to  that  in  us 
which  is  deepest  and  most  central  I  This  want,  I  say,  the 
Church,  even  in  her  ordinary  and  usual  order,  distinctly 
recognizes,  and  thus  the  only  question  which  practically 
remains  in  this  connection  is  the  question  whether  that 
order  adequately  and  sufficiently  supplies  it. 

As  to  that,  I  think  there  need  be  no  serious  question. 
If  the  Church  of  which  you  and  I  are  ministers  — 
for  in  a  very  real  sense  we  are  all  ministers  —  has  a 
mission  only  to  one  class,  undoubtedly  this  society  is 


352  Waymarks. 

an  impertinence,  and  our  presence  here  an  anachron- 
ism. And.  it  is  idle  to  deny  that  there  are  a  great 
many  serious  and  devout  people  who  are  secretly  per- 
suaded, though  they  may  be  reluctant  openly  to  admit 
it,  that  this  is  so.  It  is  said  that  a  young  clergyman 
who  went  to  his  bishop  for  permission  to  use  a  service 
not  in  the  prayer-book,  in  a  mission  hall,  was  met  with 
an  injunction  to  confine  himself  strictly  to  the  order  of 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer  as  set  forth  by  the  Gen- 
eral Convention.  "  But,  sir !  "  said  the  stripling,  "  I 
can  never  reach  the  people  in  that  way !  "  "  So  much 
the  worse  for  the  people ! "  answered  the  bishop,  and 
I  have  not  the  smallest  doubt  that  he  profoundly  be- 
lieved it.  In  other  words,  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  really 
godly  and  honest  man  was  persuaded  that  if  there  were 
human  beings  who  could  not  be  reached  with  "dearly 
beloved  brethren  "  and  the  "  Venite  "  and  the  "  Bene- 
dietuSj^^  they  could  only  be  dismissed  to  that  Larger 
Hope  in  which  most  certainly  he  himself  did  not 
believe ! 

But  the  conditions  of  the  mission  hall  are  becoming 
more  and  more  —  God  be  thanked  for  it!  —  the  condi- 
tions of  many  of  our  congregations,  and  of  that  con- 
stantly increasing  fringe  of  interested  people  who  are, 
so  far  as  positive  Churchmanship  is  concerned,  still  in 
the  "  court  of  the  Gentiles. "  These  are  looking  to  the 
Church  not  alone  for  a  reverent  worship,  but  first  for 
a  message  of  life  and  grace.  Tired  men  and  discour- 
aged men,  and  guilty  men,  people  who,  weary  and 
heavy-laden,  now  as  of  old,  are  waiting  till  some  clear 


Agencies  of  Revival.  353 

and  persuasive  voice  shall  bid  them  "come,"  —  all 
these  you  could  indeed  have  found  here  this  morning 
and  everywhere  else  that  an  altar  is  reared  and  men  are 
called  to  pray.  And  if  you  say  that  such  quickening 
and  decisive  words  as  I  have  referred  to  are  what  they 
ought  to  hear  from  those  who  are  set  over  them  in  holy 
things,  and  what,  in  the  happy  experience  of  many  to 
whom  I  speak  this  evening,  they  do  hear, — I  gladly 
and  thankfully  own  it.  But  1  affirm  no  less  that, 
estimating  the  gifts  of  the  ministry  as  it  exists  in  our 
day  as  highly  as  we  please,  there  still  remains  a  place 
in  even  the  best-ordered  and  best-instructed  parochial 
system  for  a  fresh  voice,  for  that  gift  which  not  all 
great  preachers  have,  of  direct  and  personal  address, 
and  most  of  all,  —  for  on  this,  I  confess,  I  set  chief 
value,  —  for  those  personal  contacts  which  are,  after 
all,  the  most  potent  force  in  any  ministry,  even  as  they 
are  the  rarest  and  most  difficult  to  achieve. 

And  just  here  I  ask  your  attention  to  a  passage  in 
the  Annual  Report  of  this  society,  of  especial  perti- 
nency and  significance.  "Everywhere,"  it  says,  "we 
hear  the  same  story:  'We  did  not  reach  many  outside, 
but  our  own  people  have  been  greatly  blessed.'  Men 
and  women  who  have  been  content  with  a  quiet,  lan- 
guid discharge  of  their  own  religious  duties,  who 
apparently  never  dreamed  that  the  words,  '  Save  thyself 
and  them  that  hear  thee,'  apply  to  any  but  an  ordained 
minister  of  Christ,  have  been  awakened  to  a  sense  of 
their  own  responsibility  to  God,  and  have  consecrated 
themselves   to   His   service."      Yes,   there  is  the  fact 

23 


354  Waymarhs. 

in  this  business  of  paramount  and  pre-eminent  impor- 
tance !  We  are  living  in  a  time  when  it  is  the  dream  of 
reformers  of  whatever  class  and  kind,  social,  political 
or  moral,  to  heal  the  evils  of  the  time  by  dealing  with 
men  and  women  en  masse.  They  are  to  be  housed  and 
fed  in  crowds,  and  taught  to  vote  by  committees,  and 
made  godly  by  the  excitement  and  huzzas  of  a  religious 
mass-meeting,  or  a  Gospel  "drill."  There  never  w^as 
a  more  dangerous  or  pestilent  fallacy  since  the  world 
began ;  for  it  substitutes  the  coercive  power  of  official 
mechanism  for  the  personal  influence  of  personal  en- 
deavor, and  the  vicarious  activities  of  a  hired  multi- 
tude for  the  solitary  consecration  of  our  individual 
gifts.  And  the  worst  of  such  substitution  is  that  it 
falls  in  so  entirely  with  our  own  indolent  preposses- 
sions. We  go  to  a  religious  meeting  and  hear  an 
impassioned  appeal,  and  note  its  effect  upon  others, 
and  feel  ourselves  something  of  the  pleasurable  experi- 
ence of  quickened  pulses  and  excited  emotions,  and  we 
go  away  and  say,  "  AVhat  a  delightful  meeting !  Surely 
such  stirring  appeals  must  do  a  great  deal  of  good." 
On  the  contrary,  there  is  no  smallest  certainty  in  such 
a  case  of  any  good  whatever.  It  all  depends  upon  what 
that  is  that  comes  after ;  and  what  that  is  depends  in- 
deed upon  the  individual  resolution  of  those  who  are  so 
moved,  but  it  depends  no  less  largely  upon  the  subse- 
quent influences  brought  to  bear  upon  one  so  awakened 
from  without.  It  is  personal  interest,  and  unwearied 
solicitude,  and  individual  pleading,  and  teaching,  and 
warning,  that,  under  God,  make  of    awakened  people 


Agencies  of  Revival.  355 

steadfast  Christian  disciples;  and  nothing  else  will 
make  them  so;  and  it  is  that,  I  maintain,  that  this 
society  pre-eminentl}^  stands  for.  It  does  not  under- 
value the  uses  of  religious  excitement,  but  it  rates 
them  at  their  true  worth.  It  does  not  disesteem  the 
stirring  message  of  some  modern  John  the  Baptist,  but 
it  follows  that  message  with  something  more,  and  more 
personal,  precisely  as  he  followed  his.  Is  there  any- 
thing in  the  New  Testament  more  eternally  significant 
as  indicating  the  true  methods  of  the  true  missioner 
than  the  verses  succeeding  that  which  I  have  read  to 
you  ?  First,  "  Repent  ye  I "  "  Repent  ye  I  "  "  Repent 
ye ! ''  And  then  tears  and  clamor  and  passion  ?  No, 
no!  Then  reformation  of  conduct,  the  righting  of 
wrongs,  the  telling  of  the  truth,  the  ennobling  of  the 
life.  "Do  violence  to  no  man,  neither  accuse  any 
falsely,  and  be  content  with  your  wages."  We  are 
some  of  us  very  much  afraid  of  a  system  of  spiritual 
direction;  and  if  it  is  to  degenerate  into  the  confes- 
sional as  it  exists  in  the  Roman  communion  to-day 
(concerning  which,  if  any  of  us  is  enamoured  of  it,  I 
advise  him  to  read  Mr.  Capes'  remarkable  book,  "To 
Rome  and  Back  ")  ^  we  may  well  be  afraid  of  it.  But 
there  is  a  place  in  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  for 
the  guidance,  personal,  individual,  particular,  by  their 
instructed  and  experienced  brethren,  of  the  young,  the 
inexperienced,  the  doubting,  the  new  convert,  the 
"stranger  in  our  gates,"  which,   more  than  all  other 

1  To  Rome  and   Back.     Rev.  John   Capes,  M.  A.     London  :  Smith, 
Elder,  &  Co.     1873. 


356  .     Waymarks. 

wants,  is  the  want  of  the  Church  in  our  day.  Not  to 
think  that  you  can  lose  yourself  in  the  mass,  but  that 
if  you  have  experience,  maturity,  knowledge,  sympa- 
thy, the  power  of  influence,  you  must  take  these  things 
and  use  them  for  the  cause  of  Christ  in  helping  some 
other  soul, —  and  that  it  is  at  the  peril  of  your  own  soul 
and  the  peril  of  the  souls  of  your  weaker  brethren  that 
you  refuse  to  do  so,  —  this  is  what  our  society  stands 
for,  and  what  it  aims  to  awaken  men  and  women  to  do. 

I  bless  God  that  in  our  brancn  oi  the  Church  Catho- 
lic we  are  so  widely  doing  it.  With  characteristic 
nobility  of  reserve,  and  with  generous  magnanimity  of 
approbation,  where  approbation  could  possibly  be  given, 
did  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  other  day,  at 
once  recognize  all  that  deserved  recognition  in  efforts, 
under  other  auspices  than  those  of  the  Church,  to  reach 
the  neglected  and  the  outcast.  But  he  might  easily 
have  gone  farther  than  he  did.  He  might  have  pointed 
out  that  in  agencies  similar  to  this,  without  blare  of 
trumpet  or  flaunting  of  banners,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land —  and,  following  her  inspiring  example,  our  own 
—  has  not  only  preached  in  fields,  in  streets,  and  in 
omnibus -yards,  but,  first  of  all,  has  preached  to  itself, 
and  stirred  a  glow  of  enthusiasm  to  which  missions 
and  missioners,  Toynbee  Hall  and  Oxford  House,  the 
work  on  London  Docks  and  in  slums,  and  alleys,  and 
g?,rrets  here  in  our  own  land,  bedr  witness,  —  has  not 
only  aroused  men,  but  has  taught  and  uplifted  them ; 
and,  best  of  all,  has  thrilled  into  passionate  life  and 
eager  self-sacrifice  in  behalf  of    their  brethren  brave 


Agencies  of  Revival.  357 

and  earnest  souls,  both  there  and  here,  of  whose  glori- 
ous labors,  and  their  glorious  results,  we  shall  fully 
know  only  at  the  last  Great  Day. 

Ye  see,  then,  brethren,  your  calling,  — yes,  yours 
and  mine.  The  Church  is  here  in  the  world  to  dis- 
dain no  instrument  for  good,  however  humble,  or  how- 
ever misused.  Here,  in  this  work,  is  one  of  them. 
May  God  give  us  courage  to  use  it  with  wisdom  and 
power  to  His  glory  1 


MISSION  AND   COMMISSION. 

The  first  bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Massachusetts,  like  him  in 
connection  with  whose  consecration  the  following  sermon 
was  preached,  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  a  graduate, 
in  A.  D.  1744,  of  Harvard  College.  Edward  Bass  was  born 
in  Dorchester;  ordained  deacon  in  the  chapel  of  Fulham 
Palace,  London,  by  the  Eight  Rev.  Dr.  Sherlock,  the  bishop 
of  that  diocese,  and  priest  a  week  after  his  ordination  to 
the  diaconate,  in  the  same  place  and  by  the  same  prelate. 
He  was  consecrated  bishop  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia, 
May  7,  1797,  and  one  of  his  consecrators  was  Dr.  Thomas 
John  Claggett,  the  first  bishop  consecrated  in  the  United 
States, — the  others  being  Bishops  White  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Provoost  of  New  York.  Seven  years  later  Bishop  Bass 
was  succeeded  by  Dr.  Samuel  Parker,  also  a  New  Englander 
by  birth  and  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  who  was  conse- 
crated in  New  York  on  September  14,  1804.  Dr.  Parker 
died  three  months  after  his  consecration,  without  having 
performed  one  episcopal  act. 

His  successor  was  Dr.  Alexander  Viets  Griswold,  a  saint 
and  missionary,  to  whom,  owing  to  the  weakness  of  the 
Church  in  New  England  which  denied  a  bishop  to  a 
single  commonwealth,  was  committed  what  was  called  ''the 
Eastern  Diocese,"  —  a  jurisdiction  including  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  Khode  Island. 
Dr.  Griswold,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  was,  like  his  prede- 
cessor, consecrated  in  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  on  May 
29,  1811,  Massachusetts  having  thus  been  without  episcopal 


Mission  and  Commission.  359 

oversight  —  for  which  then,   indeed,   it   had  very  small  de- 
sire —  for  seven  years. 

Bishop  Griswold's  episcopate  continued  until  February  15, 
1843,  during  which  time  he  became  presiding  bishop  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  America.  He  fell  dead  in  Boston  at  the 
door  of  his  assistant  and  successor.  Dr.  Manton  Eastburn, 
who  had  been  consecrated  only  a  few  weeks  before,  —  De- 
cember 29,  1842,  in  Trinity  Church,  Boston.  Bishop  East- 
burn  was  a  native  of  Leeds,  England  —  and  he  never  forgot  it. 
His  venerated  predecessor  had  been  an  American  of  the 
Americans  in  his  simplicity,  primitiveness  of  habits,  man- 
ners, and  tastes,  and  in  his  traditional  identity  with  Xew 
England.  Of  singular  meekness,  and  no  less  singular  wis- 
dom. Bishop  Griswold  left  behind  him  the  fragrant  memory 
of  a  wise  and  gentle  ministry,  in  which  the  episcopal  never 
wholly  displaced  the  pastoral  and  parochial  work,  and  from 
which  there  has  come  down  to  later  da3^s  the  image  of  one  with 
exceptional  aptitudes  for  commending  the  Church  to  a  gener- 
ation that  disliked  or  distrusted  her. 

His  successor.  Dr.  Eastburn,  had  been  eminent,  in  the 
Churcli  of  the  Ascension  in  New  York,  as  a  preacher,  and 
was  a  man  of  exceptional  culture  for  his  day,  and  of  a  rare 
taste  in  ancient  as  well  as  modern  literature.  By  tempera- 
ment and  inheritance  he  was  eminently  a  conservative,  and 
he  neither  greatly  desired  the  influx  of  those  connected  with 
other  communions  into  the  Church,  nor  encouraged  it.  But 
while  tenacious  of  his  opinions  and  adverse  to  change,  he 
was  the  friend  of  all  good  men  and  good  works,  and  devout, 
courageous,  and  courteous  under  all  circumstances. 

Bishop  Eastburn  died  September  12,  1872,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  Bight  Rev.  Henry  Benjamin  Paddock,  D.D., 
of  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who  was  consecrated  in  that  city  at 
Grace  Cliurch,  September  17,  1873.  He  died  March  9, 
1891,  after  an  episcopate  distinguished  bj^  unwearied  devo- 


360  Waymarks. 

tion  to  his  work  and  his  flock,  and  endeared  to  all  who  knew 
him  by  the  gentle  dignity,  transparent  purity,  and  devout 
consistency  of  his  life  and  character. 

The  sermon  which  follows  was  preached  at  the  consecra- 
tion of  his  successor.  Dr.  Phillips  Brooks,  at  Trinity  Church, 
Boston,  of  which  he  had  been  rector  for  more  than  twenty 
years,   on  Wednesda3^,   October  14,   1891. 


XXI. 

MISSION  AND   COMMISSION. 

As  they  ministered  to  the  Lor'd,  and  fasted,  the  Holy  Ghost 
said,  Sei^arate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  luork  where- 
unto  I  have  called  them.  And  when  they  had  fasted  and 
prayed,  and  laid  their  hands  on  them  they  sent  them  away. 
So  they,  being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  departed.  — 
Acts  xiii.  2-4. 

Stir  up  the  gift  of  God  which  is  in  thee  by  the  putting  on  of 
my  hands.  —  2  Timothy  i.  6. 

In  words  such  as  these  we  have  a  picture  out  of  that 
earliest  life  of  the  Church,  of  which  the  books  from 
which  I  take  it  tell  the  story.  How  fresh  and  vivid  it 
is !  What  high  enthusiasm,  what  uncalculating  ardor, 
what  unhesitating  self-sacrifice  !  One  does  not  need  to 
be  in  sympathy  with  their  beliefs  or  at  one  with  their 
aims,  even,  as  a  good  deal  of  modern  literature  has 
taught  us,  to  be  moved  by  their  fervor  or  kindled  at 
least  into  admiration  by  the  story  of  those  earliest  min- 
istries. The  coldest  heart  must  own  that,  whether  it 
were  myth  or  fable  that  stirred  them,  for  a  while  at  any 
rate  a  new  spell  had  touched  the  world,  and  a  new  voice 
had  spoken  to  waiting  and  eager  souls.  We  look  at  the 
mighty  forces  against  which  the  first  Christian  disciples 


362  Waymarhs. 

hurled  themselves,  we  look  at  the  spiritual  torpor,  the 
blank  hopelessness,  the  unutterable  moral  degradation 
to  which  they  made  their  appeal,  and  we  wonder  at 
their  audacity  —  or  their  faith !  No  hostility  daunted 
them ;  no  indifference  discouraged  them  ;  no  tremendous 
bulk  of  evil  deterred  them.  The  work  they  aimed  to  do, 
men  told  them,  was  impossible  work.  They  simply  re- 
fused to  believe  it.  The  obstacles  which  confronted 
them,  other  men  told  them  were  insurmountable  obsta- 
cles. They  simply  refused  to  see  it.  They  were  on  fire 
with  a  consuming  purpose,  and  they  did  not  stop, 
whether  to  measure  their  task  or  to  discuss  its  difficul- 
ties. This,  we  say,  is  the  fruit  of  a  great  enthusiasm. 
It  always  works  this  way,  and  it  would  be  without  re- 
sults if  it  did  not. 

Yes,  but  the  moment  that  we  look  a  little  closer  at 
the  story  of  this  enthusiasm,  we  see  that  along  with  it 
there  was  something  more.  It  has  been  common  to 
disparage  the  gifts  of  the  first  founders  of  Christianity, 
and  to  seek  to  make  the  more  of  its  distinctive  char- 
acteristics by  making  as  little  as  possible  of  the  men 
who  illustrated  them.  According  to  our  standards, 
doubtless,  they  were  not  very  learned  nor  very  influen- 
tial persons.  They  have  been  called  —  the  College  of 
the  Twelve  Apostles  —  a  handful  of  peasants ;  and,  in 
one  sense  some  of  them  were.  They  have  been  described 
as  insignificant  among  the  great  of  their  own  day ;  and 
measured  in  one  way  they  were.  But  when  we  come 
closer  to  some  at  least  among  them  we  cannot  so  easily 
disesteem  them.     One  anion ii:;  them  was  chosen  to  be 


Mission  and   Commission.  363 

the  leader  among  his  fellows.  Can  anybody  who  reads 
the  story  of  his  life  find  it  easy  to  believe  that  he  had 
not  in  him  the  natural  genius  of  leadership  ?  If  there 
are  in  certain  types  of  organized  Christian  society  what 
we  may  call  Petrine  qualities,  can  it  be  doubted  that 
they  find  their  first  and  most  characteristic  illustration 
in  him  who  was  Simon  Peter  ?  Or  again,  if  there  has 
been  in  all  ages  of  the  Church  what  we  may  call  the 
philosophic  instinct,  is  it  difficult  to  trace  its  source  to 
those  letters  of  that  pupil  of  Gamaliel  who  came  in  time 
to  reveal  the  resplendent  intellectual  qualities  of  Paul 
the  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  ?  The  interrogative  impulse 
of  Thomas  the  twin,  the  affectionate  brotherliness  of 
Andrew  the  missionary,  —  were  not  each  of  these  in 
their  way  distinctive  personal  traits,  some  of  them  of  a 
very  rare  and  beautiful  quality,  which  go  no  little  way 
to  explain  what  more  than  one  of  them  did  to  forward 
the  knowledge  and  hasten  the  triumph  of  the  cause  to 
which  he  had  committed  himself  ?  Surely  he  alone  can 
say  so  who  has  not  studied  the  quality  of  their  work, 
of  whatever  kind  it  was,  nor  measured  the  character  of 
its  results.  There  was  high  enthusiasm,  there  was  con- 
suming ardor,  but  along  with  these  in  every  most  note- 
worthy instance  of  apostolic  achievement  there  was 
some  distinct  natural  endowment  which  would  have 
given  its  possessor  anywhere  commanding  influence 
among  men. 

And  so  it  has  always  been.  God  has  indeed  often 
chosen  by  the  "  foolishness  of  preaching,"  as  it  has 
seemed   to  some  poor  souls  irresponsive  to  its    mighty 


364  Waymarks. 

power,  to  save  them  that  believe  ;  but  it  has  not  been  by 
foolish  preaching.  The  voices  that  have  stirred  the 
world,  the  messages  that  have  thrilled  and  enkindled 
cold  and  discouraged  hearts  have  not  been  the  voices  or 
the  messages  of  fools.  Whatever  strange  passion  in- 
flamed them,  whatever  tense  and  eager  purpose  would 
not  give  them  pause,  if  in  them  there  was  lifting  and 
awakening  power,  if  their  words  not  merely  kindled  the 
emotions  but  convinced  the  reason  and  persuaded  the 
judgment,  it  was  because  behind  the  passion  there  was  a 
thinking,  reasoning  man.,  speaking  out  of  the  large  and 
rich  manhood  in  himself  to  the  manhood  of  other  men. 
And  so,  to  come  back  to  the  picture  with  which  we 
started,  does  anybody  suppose,  when  at  Antioch  the 
Church  in  that  busy  city  fasted  and  celebrated  its 
solemn  Eucharist,  and  prepared  to  choose  those  who 
were  to  go  forth  on  its  high  errands,  that  "  Simeon  that 
was  called  Niger,  and  Lucius  of  Cyrene,  and  Manaen 
which  had  been  brought  up  with  Herod  the  Tetrarch," 
and  the  rest  of  them  were  there  at  hap-hazard  ?  Out 
from  these  half-dozen  men,  more  or  less,  were  to  be 
chosen  two  to  be  consecrated  on  that  memorable  day  to 
a  great  and  memorable  work.  Do  you  suppose  that 
those  who  a  little  later  laid  their  hands  on  them  con- 
cerned themselves  in  no  wise,  beforehand,  to  find  out 
what  kind  of  men  they  had  been,  what  sort  of  gifts 
were  theirs,  what  order  of  work  they  had  accomplished, 
just  in  precisely  the  same  way  that  before  appointing 
any  man  in  this  community  to  any  responsible  task,  his 
fellows  are  wont  to  inquire  what  sort  of  gifts  he  has  ? 


Mission  and  Commission,  365 

In  one  place  we  read,  in  this  story  of  first  eK/cXrjaLa 
building,  of  men  as  commended  to  the  confidence  of  their 
fellows  because  they  had  "  hazarded  their  lives."  Very 
well,  then,  those  who  chose  them  wanted  courage.  In 
another  place  we  read  of  a  Pagan  ruler,  stupid  and  sunk 
in  his  sins,  as  saying  to  a  Christian  apostle,  "  Almost 
thou  persuadest  ?7ie."  Very  well,  then,  again,  they 
wanted  logic.  Do  you  suppose  that  they  did  not  seek 
for  eloquence  (if  they  could  find  it),  for  sympathy,  for 
the  quick  power  of  understanding  another's  perplexities, 
for  that  infinite  hopefulness  of  human  nature  which,  I 
sometimes  think,  is  quite  its  finest  quality  ?  We  may 
be  sure  they  did.  And  no  less  sure  may  we  be  that 
when  Barnabas  and  Saul  were  singled  out  from  among 
their  associates  for  the  rare  dignity  of  suffering  and 
loneliness  and  privation  in  their  high  office,  they  were 
chosen  because,  anywhere,  and  among  any  set  of  men, 
and  in  whatever  service,  they  would  sooner  or  later,  but 
inevitably,  have  come  to  the  front. 

Yes,  but  how  were  they  singled  out  ?  We  advance  a 
step  farther  in  that  story  which  I  have  recalled  to  you, 
and  Ave  read  that  "  As  they  fasted  and  ministered  before 
the  Lord,  there  came  a  voice  which  said,  '  Separate  .  .  . 
Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work.' "  Whose  voice  was 
it  ?  Were  those  men  called  thus  to  their  high  office  by 
the  high  acclaim  of  a  public  assembly  ?  For  myself  I 
have  little  doubt,  that  before  the  Voice  that  spoke  those 
few  words  was  heard,  there  had  been  heard  another  and 
more  multitudinous  one.  That  city  of  Antioch  in  which 
Simeon,  and  Lucius,  and  the  rest  of  them  were  gathered 


366  Waymarks. 

contained  the  first  church  organized  among  the  Gen- 
tiles, and  it  became  in  time  the  centre  of  those  mission- 
ary activities  by  which  the  Roman  world  was  evangelized. 
The  prophets  and  teachers  who  began  the  work  were 
supplemented,  later,  by  Barnabas  and  Saul ;  and  step  by 
step  in  the  simple  story  we  may  trace  the  unfolding  of 
the  organic  life  of  the  Church.  There  was  an  assembly 
first,  and  then  there  came  to  be  the  ecclesia,  —  avva')(^ 
Orjvai  iv  ttj  eKKXrjaid,  —  and  it  was  this  community  of 
the  brethren,  it  may  easily  have  been,  that  with  more  or 
less  formality  first  indicated  its  preferences,  and  pointed 
its  finger  of  designation  towards  the  men  who  were  fittest 
and  worthiest  for  the  higher  service  of  the  Church. 

But  this  was  not  Mission.  That  comes  into  view 
when  we  read  that  the  Voice  which  said,  "  Separate 
Barnabas  and  Saul,"  was  the  Voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
It  is  not  only  "  separate  ; "  it  is  "  separate  Me."  It  is 
not  only  for  the  work  ye  are  to  separate  them,  but 
"for  the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them."  And 
thus  we  come  into  the  presence  of  that  unique  dis- 
tinction which  forever  differentiates  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  from  all  other  enthu- 
siasms. It  was  the  enthusiasm  of  a  new  creation  by 
the  power  of  a  Divine  breath.  One  day,  a  little  before, 
the  Master  of  twelve  men  is  about  to  vanish  out  of  their 
sight.  One  who  had  come  back  to  draw  about  Him 
anew  a  little  band  of  personal  followers,  meets  them  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  and  saying  to  them,  "As 
my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you,"  "  He 
breathed   on    them   and   said,   '  Receive    ye   the     Holy 


Mission  and  Commission.  367 

Ghost.' "  ^  A  little  later  this  same  Being,  ascending 
up  from  these  same  followers,  bids  them  "  depart  not 
from  Jerusalem,  but  wait  for  the  promise  of  the  Fa- 
ther." 2  Well,  they  wait,  and  the  promise  is  fulfilled. 
"  There  came  a  sound  from  heaven,"  we  read,  "  and  they 
were  all  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  ^  Henceforth 
there  was  a  new  Force  in  the  world,  and  they  were 
never  without  it.  It  is  the  seven-fold  power  of  God 
the  Holv  Ghost.  Call  it  an  influence,  water  it  down 
to  be  a  cult,  disparage  it  as  so  much  mysticism,  verily 
you  will  have  to  tear  yonder  story  to  pieces,  and  hunt 
out  with  microscope  and  dissecting  knife  the  very  struc- 
tural fibre  of  those  first  parchments  on  which  the  Gospel 
story  was  written,  before  you  can  get  that  element  out 
of  it!  Bereft  of  the  mission  and  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  calling,  arresting,  convicting,  convincing,  enlight- 
ening, transforming,  empowering,  —  the  whole  fabric  of 
primitive  history  becomes  somehow  invertebrate,  and 
crumbles  into  a  shapeless  mass  of  incident  and  talk. 
Nothing  is  more  tremendous  in  its  significance  than  the 
way  in  which  all  that  new  life  of  the  first  century  takes 
its  rise  in  the  active,  audible,  commanding  Presence  in 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  from  all  excursions, 
activities,  or  ministries,  forever  returns  to  it.  The  visit 
of  Peter  and  John  to  Samaria,  the  descent  of  the  Spirit 
at  Cassarea,  the  coming  of  Saint  Paul  to  Ephesus,  are  all 
parts  of  a  whole,  of  which  the  calling  of  Barnabas  and 
Saul  is  but  another  part.  There  was  a  new  and  com- 
manding Voice ;   it  spoke  with  unhesitating  authority. 

1  St.  John  XX.  21,  22.  ^  ^cts  i.  4.  ^  Acts  ii.  2,  4. 


368  Waymarks. 

There  was  a  new  and  regenerating  breath.  It  came 
with  irresistible  power.  And  when  it  came  the  world 
was  transfigured,  and  man  himself  transformed.  Out 
into  that  ^v^ild  waste  of  sin  and  shame  the  men  to  whom 
it  came  went  forth,  and  notliing  was  able  to  withstand 
them.  Whatever  they  had  been  in  themselves,  this  new 
Force  and  Fire  somehow  multiplied  and  enlarged  them. 
Not  alone  on  the  day  of  Pentecostal  baptism,  but  all  the 
way  down  and  on,  they  spake  with  other  tongues  as  the 
Spirit  gave  them  utterance.  And  this  they,  and  those 
who  have  succeeded  them,  have  been  doing  ever  since. 
If  they  have  forgotten  that  heaven-given  Source  of  their 
strength,  that  strength  has  dwindled  and  shrunk.  If 
they  have  remembered  it,  no  lapse  of  centuries  nor 
changes  of  custom  have  been  sufficient  to  stale  its  fresh- 
ness nor  to  resist  its  transforming  spell.  This  iraXiyye- 
veaia  —  yes,  that  was  it  —  still  stii'S  and  quickens  the 
Church,  and  is  the  supreme  secret  of  its  power.  In  one 
word,  that  which  gave  to  these  men,  and  to  those  who 
have  come  after  them  in  that  Divine  society  of  which 
they  were  the  ministers,  the  authority  whether  to  teach 
or  to  rule,  was  not  their  native  gifts,  —  however  great 
they  may  have  been,  nor  however  largely  they  may  have 
been  considered  in  their  clioice,  —  but  the  calling  and 
the  sending  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  a  still  further  question  remains  to  be  answered. 
What  was  not  alone  the  evidence  or  token  of  that  mis- 
sion, but  its  authentication  ?  Was  this  the  whole  story 
of  that  mission,  —  that  certain  men  being  assembled  to- 
gether, a  voice  said,  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul," 


Mission  a7id  Commissio7i.  369 

and  that  then  those  who  were  named  separated  them- 
selves and  went  away,  and  henceforth  did  their  work  as 
men  fully  and  sufficiently  authorized  and  empowered 
thus  for  its  discharge  ?  On  the  contrary,  there  is  some- 
thing more  in  the  history,  which  we  may  not  arbitrarily 
leave  out,  and  which  is  just  as  essential  to  its  integrity 
as  anything  that  has  gone  before.  We  may  wish  that 
it  were  not  there.  We  may  believe  it  to  have  been  the 
source  of  endless  and  most  hurtful  superstitions.  We 
may  dismiss  it  as  a  relic  of  that  out-worn  ceremonialism 
from  which  the  world  of  that  day  was  not  yet  wholly 
free.  But  still  it  is  there  ;  and,  as  honest  men,  we  must 
deal  frankly  and  honestly  with  it.  For  this  is  the  story 
in  its  completeness  :  "  The  Holy  Ghost  said,  '  Separate 
me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work  whereunto  I  have 
called  them.'  And  when  they  had  fasted  and  prayed, 
and  laid  their  haiids  on  the77i,  they  sent  them  away.  So 
they,  bei^ig  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  departed.'* 
Certainly,  there  is  no  obscurity  here.  Juggle  with  the 
words  as  one  may,  he  cannot  separate  the  inward  call 
and  the  outward  ordinance,  the  spiritual  mission  and 
the  tactual  commission,  the  divine  empowerment  and 
the  human  authentication  of  it. 

Let  no  one 'misunderstand  me.  Am  I  affirming^  that 
the  gifts  and  powers  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  invariably 
and  exclusively  tied  to  the  agencies  ordained  for  their 
transmission  ?  I  am  affirming  nothing  of  the  sort.  Who 
are  we  that  we  sliould  limit  the  power  of  that  Divine 
Spirit  which  first  brooded  upon  chaos  and  evoked  from 
it  order  and  beauty  and  life  ?     There  are  some  of  us 

24 


370  Waymarhs. 

here  who  must  always  gratefully  remember  saintly  an- 
cestors who  disesteemed,  if  they  did  not  despise,  all  visi- 
ble ordinances,  and  dismissed  them  utterly  out  of  the 
horizon  whether  of  their  observance  or  of  their  belief. 
Happy  he  who,  with  the  help  of  church  and  sacrament 
and  duly  transmitted  ministry  in  all  their  fullest  com- 
pleteness, can  emulate  their  sainthood,  and  tread  at  ever 
so  great  a  distance  in  their  holy  footsteps  !  But  all  the 
same,  "  God  is  not  the  author  of  confusion  in  the 
churches  of  the  saints ; "  and  as,  from  the  beginning, 
it  has  been  a  law  of  that  order  that  He  shall  work, 
whether  in  His  kingdom  of  Nature  or  His  kingdom  of 
Grace,  along  the  lines  of  His  own  divine  appointment, 
so  it  will  be  to  the  end.  Departures,  revolts,  long-con- 
tinued disregard  and  indifference  there  may  be,  with 
perhaps  large  if  not  quite  complete  justification,  and 
along  with  these  there  may  be  also  the  most  strenuous 
service,  the  widest  learning,  the  most  ardent  faith,  the 
most  beautiful  self-sacrifice.  And  all  these  shall  be  the 
fruit  of  that  "  self-same  Spirit "  which  worketh  the  one 
thing,  though  not  necessarily  or  invariably  by  the  one 
way.  But  still  the  fact  remains  that  there  is  a  way 
which  is  of  God's  appointment ;  there  is  a  ministry 
which  He  first  commissioned,  and  which  they  whom  He 
first  commissioned  passed  on  and  down  to  others.  Its 
authority  does  not  come  up  from  the  people  ;  it  de- 
scends from  the  Holy  Ghost.  And,  as  in  the  beginning 
its  outward  and  visible  sign  was  the  laying  on  of  apos- 
tolic hands  upon  men  called,  whether  to  this  or  that 
or  the  other  service,  —  pastoral,  priestly,  or  prophetic, 


Mission  and  Commission.  371 

yet  still  to  an  apostolic  ministry,  —  so  it  has  been  ever 
since.  We  may  exaggerate  or  travesty  it  as  we  please. 
We  may  exult  over  its  corruptions  and  ridicule  its  pre- 
tensions, and  deride  its  efficacy.  None  of  these  things 
can  dismiss  out  of  human  history  or  human  conscious- 
ness this  fact  that,  unless  we  are  to  dismiss  the  whole 
story  of  which  it  is  a  part,  the  apostolic  ministry  is  an 
ordering  of  divine  appointment,  apart  from  which  you 
cannot  find  any  clear  trace  of  a  primitive  ministry  or  a 
primitive  Church.  We  turn  from  this  scene  at  Antioch 
to  those  memorable  ministries  that  came  after  it.  One 
of  them  stands  forth  conspicuous  above  all  the  aposto- 
lates  of  its  age,  —  unique  in  its  energy,  unapproachable 
in  its  heroism,  incomparable  alike  in  the  power  of  its 
preaching  and  in  the  inexhaustible  richness  of  its  writ- 
ings. What  a  fine  scorn  there  is  in  those  writings  for 
that  retrospective  piety  which  lingered  regretfully  among 
the  beggarly  elements  of  the  elder  order  and  ritual,  — 
what  impatience  of  the  letter,  what  bold  assertion  of 
Christian  liberty,  what  intense  ardor  of  spiritual  enthu- 
siasm !  Yes,  but  what  scrupulous  respect  for  authority, 
what  careful  observance  of  apostolic  tradition,  what  rev- 
erent use  of  appointed  means.  There  came  a  day  in  the 
ministry  of  this  grand  Apostle  when  he  is  to  set  apart 
a  youthful  disciple  and  son  in  the  faith  to  be  an  over- 
seer of  the  church  in  Ephcsus.  How  does  he  do  it  ? 
Does  he  tell  him  of  the  work  that  he  is  to  do,  and  then 
simply  dismiss  him  to  do  it  ?  Does  he  say,  "  Go,  my 
son,  and  tell  men  in  Asia  Minor  the  story  of  your  Lord's 
love,  and   write  me  occasionally  how  you  are  getting 


372  Waymarks. 

on "  ?  Not  such  is  the  meaning  of  that  clear  and  un- 
equivocal language  wliich  he  uses,  "  Stir  up  the  gift  of 
God  which  is  in  thee,"  —  and  which  is  in  thee  not  by 
inherited  cleverness,  or  acquired  learning,  or  popular 
endorsement, —  but  "  by  [8ta,  the  Greek  is]  the  laying 
on  of  my  hands ; "  or,  as  the  same  fact  is  elsewhere 
stated,  "  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  was  given  thee  .  .  . 
with  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the  presbytery." 
And  thus  once  and  again  does  this  Apostle  of  a  spiritual 
religion  guard  against  that  disesteem  of  the  outward  in- 
stitutions of  the  Church,  without  which  history,  and  that 
not  so  very  ancient  either  in  this  our  western  world, 
demonstrates  that  religion  runs  thin  and  runs  out. 

It  is  this  fact  which  explains  our  presence  here  to-day. 
There  is,  indeed,  a  theory  of  Christianity  which  resolves 
it  chiefly  into  forms  and  ceremonies,  which  makes  the 
means  the  end  ;  ihQ  instrument  the  result ;  the  sign 
the  thing  signified.  In  all  ages  of  the  world  it  has 
illustrated  an  enormous  power,  —  first  of  obscuring 
essential  truth,  and  then  of  debilitating  human  faith 
and  conduct.  I  do  not  wonder  that  men  are  afraid  of 
it.  I  do  not  wonder  that,  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
men  have  run  out  of  her  cold  ceremonialism,  wher- 
ever, as  so  widely,  it  has  been  dominant,  into  whatever 
warmth  and  ardor,  into  whatever  purity  and  simplicity, 
offered  them  a  refuge  from  its  stiff  and  frigid  and  often 
corrupt  formality.  Most  heavy  is  their  responsibility 
because  of  whose  soulless  idolatry  of  the  letter  and  the 
ceremony,  this  has  come  to  pass.  But  still  the  fact  re- 
mains :  Christ  did  not  leave  his  truth  and  fellowship  in 


Mission  and   Commission.  378 

the  world  unorganized  and  disembodied.  His  own  com- 
ing was  a  veritable  incarnation,  —  no  shadowy  ghost- 
ministry,  inaudible,  invisible,  and  intangible.  And  His 
continued  incarnation  in  His  Church  is  but  the  transfor- 
mation of  His  embodiment  in  one,  into  His  ever-living 
and  ever-active  embodiment  in  the  whole.  I  am  told 
that  you  and  I  must  believe  in  an  invisible  Church. 
Very  well ;  let  us  do  so  so  far  as  we  can.  But  as  yet 
the  only  Church  of  which  I  know,  in  the  way  in  which  I 
can  know  anything,  is  a  visible  Church,  with  a  visible 
order,  and  visible  sacraments,  and  a  visible  fellowship, 
and  which  thus  witnesses  to  me  the  continued  life  and 
power  of  its  invisible  Lord  and  Head,  once  Himself  em- 
bodied in  our  flesh  among  us.  One  day  I  shall  doubtless 
know  something  else  and  more,  of  which  this  visible 
Church  is  a  part ;  but  as  yet  the  sphere  of  my  activities 
must  be  found  within  the  fellowship  of  that  historic 
body  of  which  thus  far  this  morning  I  have  been  speak- 
ing. As  one  of  New  England's  prophets  —  himself,  I 
think,  farthest  removed  from  the  Church's  conception  of 
historic  Christianity  —  has  said :  — 

"  There  are  reasoners  whose  generalizations  have  carried 
them  so  far  as  to  leave  all  names  of  Church  or  Christianity 
behind  in  contempt.  But  when  the  generalizing  process  can 
seduce  a  writer  to  the  extent  of  declaring  that  there  is  no 
moral  difference  worth  considering  between  one  man  and  an- 
other, and  leads  a  second  writer  to  smooth  over,  as  a  trifling 
roughness  in  the  grain  of  the  wood,  the  distinction  between 
evil  and  good,  a  question  may  perhaps  arise,  alike  in  a  re- 
ligious or  a  philosophic  mind,  whether  there  is  not  some  point 
for  generalization  to  stop.     If  excessive  particularizing  makes 


374  Way  marks. 

the  bigot  with  his  narrow  mind,  or  the  superstitious  man 
with  his  false  reverence,  too  much  generalizing  empties  the 
heart  clean  of  its  warmth  and  friendshij)  and  worship.  It 
abolishes  all  terms.  It  dissolves  individual  existence.  It 
leaves  the  soul  a  mere  subject,  with  no  relations  recognized 
to  human  creatures  or  to  God  himself. 

^^One  thinker  may  say,  '  I  care  for  no  ecclesiastical  asso- 
ciations whatsoever,  and  find  my  only  Church  in  the  world. ' 
But  the  world  proves,  as  Jesus  and  his  Apostles  describe  it, 
too  wide,  imperfect,  and  still  evil  either  to  embrace  his 
holy  efforts,  or  to  give  his  spirit  a  home.  He  must,  in  con- 
tradiction of  his  theorj^,  abide  in  and  act  from  a  grander, 
though  in  visible  dimensions  a  smaller  circle,  before  he  can 
act  to  bless  and  save  the  world  itself. 

''Another  thinker  proclaims  his  allegiance  to  God  in  his 
pure  infinity  alone,  leaving  the  Christ  of  the  Gospel  aside. 
But  let  his  doctrine  of  space  and  science  and  omnipresence 
of  one  solitary  Power  through  earth  and  stars,  recommend 
itself  as  it  may  to  the  speculative  mind,  it  spreads  [but]  a 
thin  atmosphere  around  us,  in  which  we  feel  discouraged  and 
cold,  like  explorers  of  the  Arctic  region  of  thought,  and  we 
cry  out  for  a  nearer  and  somehow  more  human  divinity. 
This  is  the  unspeakable  boon  Jesus  confers  on  the  human 
race,  that  he  familiarizes  and  domesticates  God,  shows  him 
in  a  mortal  frame,  and  by  his  incarnation  of  the  great  Spirit 
makes  us  partakers  of  the  Divine  nature  more  than  we  could 
become  by  the  discovery  of  ten  thousand  new  systems,  or  by 
peering  forever  into  the  measureless  expanse  of  the  milky 
way. ' '  ^ 

So  speaks  another  far  removed  from  ourselves.  Yes, 
but  if  this  was  the  meaning  and  power  of  that  Incarna- 
tion of  the  Son  of  God  whereby  He  became  the  son  of 

^  Bartol,  Church  and  Congregation,  pp.  20-22. 


Mission  and  Commission.  375 

Mary,  what  shall  we  say  of  that  other  and  wider  incar- 
nation which  He  finds  in  the  life  of  His  Church  ?  Is 
that  to  be  the  shadowy,  filmy,  ghostly  thing  that  He 
who  founded  it  was  Himself  most  surely  not  ?  No,  no ; 
the  Church  is  still  here  a  visible  Body,  with  visible  Ordi- 
nances, its  life  descending  (wherever  else  life  may  be) 
along  appointed  lines  by  ordered  modes  which  He  Him- 
self, who  is  its  Head,  ordained  or  else  inspired.  The 
pendulum  swings  to  and  fro,  now  this  way  for  centuries, 
and  then  the  other  way  ;  but  underneath  its  widest  diver- 
gencies as  it  moves  to  left  or  right  there  is  this  central 
fact  of  the  Incarnate  Ministry  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  all 
that  it  means  to-day  in  the  life  and  work  of  His  Church. 
There  may  be  some  of  us  who  are  bred  so  fine,  or  who 
have  climbed  so  high,  that  all  the  outward  is  for  us  of 
small  account.  Our  homage  is  for  great  ideas,  we  say, 
working  along  lofty  lines  of  thought,  and  appealing  to 
the  intellectual  rather  than  the  affectional  or  emotional 
nature.  Yes,  and  the  time  may  come  when  in  such  an 
ideal  of  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ  both  reason  and 
faith  shall  find  their  most  perfect  satisfaction.  But  it 
has  not  come  yet.  The  world,  in  the  conditions  of  its 
life  and  thought,  whatever  may  have  been  the  progress 
of  the  race,  remains  under  the  same  limitations  as  those 
amid  which  Jesus  wrought  when  first  He  came  to  men. 
It  is  still  a  world  of  sight  and  sound,  of  taste  and  touch, 
as  well  as  of  intuition  and  reason  and  imagination. 
The  warrior  still  cherishes  his  bit  of  ribbon  symbolic  of 
heroic  suffering ;  why  may  not  the  Christian  cherish 
some  simple  emblem  of  the  passion  of  His  Lord  ?     The 


376  Way  marks. 

soldier  still  wears  his  crimson  sash  or  scarf.  Why  may 
I  not  wear  a  black  or  a  white  one  ?  The  old  man  still 
recalls,  with  inextinguishable  tenderness  and  gratitude 
the  father's  hand  once  laid  in  benediction  on  his  boyish 
head.  And  shall  we  not  prize  the  hands  that  once, 
when  we  knelt  at  yonder  chancel  rail,  or  at  some  other, 
were  laid  upon  ours  ?  Ah,  believe  me,  He  who"  knew 
what  was  in  man  did  not  touch,  and  touch,  and  touch 
again  for  nothing !  Take  His  human  hand,  outstretched 
to  bless,  to  heal,  to  open,  to  awaken,  to  break  and  to 
distribute,  but  always  touching,  —  no  vileness  too  vile  for 
its  cleansing  contact,  no  slumber  too  deep  for  its  awak- 
ening call,  no  impotence  too  utter  for  its  transforming 
power,  —  take  all  that  that  Hand  has  wrought  and  has 
translated  to  men,  the  miracles  of  God,  the  tenderness  of 
God,  the  never  wearying  succor  and  salvation  of  God, 
out  of  the  Gospel  story,  and  you  have  bereft  that  story 
almost  beyond  repair. 

But  just  here,  it  may  be  said,  "  All  this  is  very  pretty, 
very  clever,  very  adroit  indeed,  but  how  unutterably 
small  and  petty  !  How  pitiful  is  this  resting  in  the  form, 
as  if  it  mattered  with  what  form  or  with  what  commission 
you  or  I  wrought,  so  long  as  we  cling  to  the  essence  and 
the  spirit  of  the  Master's  teaching.  Pray  let  us  dismiss 
these  dreary  and  unprofitable  discussions  about  the 
visible  in  Christianity,  and  get  down  to  the  life  and  soul 
of  it ! "  Men  and  brethren,  there  never  was  a  more 
solemn  impertinence  under  the  sun !  Believe  me,  I  am 
as  much  concerned  as  anybody  to  get  down  to  the  life 
and  soul  of  Christianity  ;    but   as   I  never   knew,  nor 


Mission  and  Commission.  377 

you,  of  any  other  life  and  soul  without  a  body  in  all  the 
history  of  this  world  of  ours,  neither  may  we  look  for 
any  other  in  the  life  of  God's  Church.  But  whether 
we  do  or  not,  what  I  resent  most  of  all  is  that  in- 
tolerable presumption  and  perverseness  which  in  dis- 
cussing the  question  of  the  Body  of  Christ  in  the  world 
persists  in  putting  asunder  what  not  I  or  any  body  of 
conceited  ecclesiastics,  but  Jesus  Christ  himself  hath 
joined  together.  It  is  not  more  certain  that  He  has 
revealed  a  grace  than  that  He  has  ordained  means  of 
grace.  The  two  are  not  enemies.  They  are  rather 
parts  of  one  whole,  and  the  whole  is  of  His  ordering. 
And  therefore  our  office,  however  clever  we  may  be, 
or  however  sublimated  our  ideas,  is  to  own  that  one- 
ness and  humbly  to  cherish  and  honor  it.  We  need  to 
reverence  the  Sacrament  as  well  as  Him  who  appointed 
it.  We  need  to  cherish  the  Order  as  well  as  to  pay  our 
homage  to  Him  who  in  the  beginning  called  forth  and 
commissioned  those  who  were  its  founders.  And  most 
of  all,  I  think,  we  need  to  try  and  see  how  now,  at  any 
rate,  when  some  of  the  most  aggressive  intellectual 
forces  of  our  time  are  busy  in  the  endeavor  to  dismiss 
out  of  the  realm  of  religion  positive  facts  and  a  divine 
revelation,  it  is  our  business  to  hold  fast  to  that  divine 
society  and  that  primitive  ministry  which  were  appointed 
to  conserve  and  proclaim  them  both.  "  By  no  unmean- 
ing chance,"  says  the  venerable  teacher  from  whom  I 
have  already  quoted,  "  is  the  Church  so  often  on  our 
tongues.  Not  in  vain  does  the  reformer  with  his  sharp- 
est  criticism   pay  to   her  his   respect.     No   rotten  and 


378  Waymarks. 

crumbling  ark  do  her  children  stay  up  and  bear  on  with 
their  hands.  What  but  the  Church  is  rooted  and  grow- 
ing forever  in  the  all- wasting  floods  of  time  ?  No  other 
institution  of  government  or  society,  from  the  farthest 
right  to  the  extreme  left  of  human  speculation,  so 
widely  and  clearly  touches  the  thought  of  the  age."  ^ 

And  so  to-day  we  come,  in  this  persuasion,  to  set 
apart  one  whose  ministry  within  the  walls  of  this  his- 
toric Church  has  spoken  so  widely  and  so  helpfully 
to  the  thought  of  our  age.  We  are  not  here,  as  in  a 
drawing-room,  to  give  him  our  congratulations.  We  are 
here  in  God's  sanctuary  to  give  him  our  commission. 
Henceforth  he  is  to  be  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God, 
to  whom  no  one  of  all  God's  children  is  to  be  alien  or 
remote.  "  Reverend  Father  in  God^^  we  shall  say 
presently  to  him  who  is  to  be  the  consecrator  of  this  our 
brother,  as  best  describing  his  relations  both  to  this 
occasion  and  to  the  Church  whose  servant  he  is.  Could 
there  be  a  designation  more  affecting  or  more  inspiring  ? 
How  many  aching  hearts  there  are  to-day,  adrift  on  the 
sea  of  out-worn  human  systems,  weary  of  doubt,  stained 
by  sin,  discouraged,  lonely,  or  forgotten  of  their  fellow- 
men,  who  are  waiting  for  one  in  whose  great  soul  a 
divine  Fatherhood  of  love  and  compassion  lives  anew  to 
recall  and  arouse  and  ennoble  them  !  We  speak  of  the 
limitations  of  the  Episcopate  in  these  modern  days,  and 
it  has  its  limitations.  I  am  not  sure  that  on  the  whole 
they  are  not  wise  ones.     We  in  America  have  shorn  the 

1  Church  and  Congregation,  by  Rev.  Dr.  C.  A.  Bartol,  Introduction, 
p.  7. 


Mission  and    Commission.  379 

office  of  much  of  its  state,  and  ceremony,  and  secular 
authority,  and  in  doing  so  I  am  persuaded  that  we  have 
done  well.  The  true  power  of  the  Episcopate  must  for- 
ever be  in  the  exercise  of  those  spiritual  gifts  and  graces 
of  which  it  is  the  rightful,  as  it  was  meant  to  be  the 
lowly,  inheritor.  But  for  the  exercise  of  these  there 
are,  verily,  no  limitations.  No  human  interest,  no 
social  problem,  no  personal  sorrow  or  want  can  be  alien 
to  the  true  bishop.  Whether  he  will  or  not,  his  office 
lifts  him  out  of  narrower  interests,  personal  jealousies, 
small  and  individual  conceptions.  Whether  other  men 
see  with  his  eyes  or  not,  he  must  forever  try  to  see  with 
their  eyes.  Whether  his  clergy  and  his  people  under- 
stand and  love  him,  he  must  be  always  trying  to  under- 
stand and  love  them.  And  if  he  does,  what  opportunity 
opens  before  him !  It  is  easy  enough  in  one  way  to 
narrow  and  limit  the  Episcopate,  to  exaggerate  its  pre- 
rogatives and  minimize  its  obligations,  to  stiffen  its 
ministry  into  a  hard  and  dry  routine,  and  its  personality 
into  the  speech  and  the  manners  of  a  martinet.  It  is 
easy  for  a  bishop  to  concern  himself  exclusively  with  the 
mint  and  anise  and  cummin  of  rite  and  rubric  and 
canon,  and  when  he  does  not  do  this,  there  will  be  those 
who  will  be  swift  to  tell  him  not  to  go  above  his  ap- 
pointed round  nor  to  waste  his  strength  in  other  than 
the  task-work  of  his  office.  But  if  he  refuses  to  be 
fettered  by  any  such  narrow  construction  of  his  conse- 
cration vows  as  that,  then  as  he  hearkens  to  those 
affectino  words  with  which  presently  this  our  brother 
will  be  addressed,  "  Be  to  the  flock  of  Christ  a  shepherd. 


380  Way  marks. 

not  a  wolf ;  feed  them,  devour  them  not.  Hold  up  the 
weak,  heal  the  sick,  bind  up  the  broken,  bring  again  the 
outcast,  seek  the  lost,"  how  wide  and  how  effectual  is 
the  door  which  they  hold  open !  The  world  waits,  my 
brothers,  for  men  who  carry  their  Lord's  heart  in  their 
breasts,  and  who  will  lay  their  hands  on  the  heads  of 
His  erring  ones  with  His  own  infinite  tenderness.  And 
he  will  best  do  that  work  who  comes  to  it  with  widest 
vision  and  with  largest  love. 

And  so  our  act  to-day  becomes  at  once  consistent  and 
prophetic.  I  can  well  understand  the  grief  and  dismay 
with  which  not  alone  this  congregation  but  this  com- 
munity, nor  only  these  but  with  them  other  multitudes 
in  both  hemispheres  and  of  various  fellowships,  must 
contemplate  the  act  which  takes  out  of  this  pulpit  one 
whose  teaching  and  whose  life  have  been  to  uncounted 
hearts  so  true  a  message  of  hope  and  courage.  I  can  no 
less  easily  understand  the  doubt  and  apprehension  with 
which  those  who  have  most  largely  profited  by  them  will 
see  exceptional  powers  turned  from  their  wonted  and 
fruitful  channels  to  other  and  untried  tasks.  But  never- 
theless I  am  persuaded  that  in  parting  from  this  our 
brother,  whom  you,  his  people,  now  give  to  his  larger 
work,  you  are  losing  him  only  to  find  him  anew.  God 
has  yet  other  and  greater  work  for  him  to  do,  believe 
me,  or  He  would  not  have  called  him  to  it.  This  fair 
and  ancient  city,  this  great  State  with  its  teeming 
towns  and  villages,  when  has  there  been  a  time  in 
the  progress  of  our  national  history  when  they  have 
not  left  their  impress,  clear  and  strong  and  enduring, 


Mission  and  Commission.  381 

upon  all  our  noblest  policies !  To  leave  New  England 
out  of  the  history  of  this  republic,  or  Massachusetts  out 
of  the  history  of  New  England,  would  be  to  leaA'e  much 
of  its  best  and  most  potential  life  out  of  the  history  of 
both.  And  w^e  may  w^ell  rejoice,  therefore,  and  you 
especially  of  this  venerable  parish,  that  it  is  your  rare 
privilege  to  give  so  choice  a  gift  to  that  larger  constit- 
uency to  which  now  your  minister  goes.  You  know 
better  than  I  can  tell  you  how  close  you  will  always 
be  to  him ;  and  you  will  not  refuse,  I  am  persuaded, 
to  yield  him  to  that  wider  parish  which  is  not  bounded 
even  by  the  boundaries  of  this  ancient  and  historic 
Commonwealth ! 

And  you,  my  brother,  soon  to  be  a  brother  in  a  dearer 
and  holier  bond,  what  can  I  trust  myself  to  say  to  you  ? 
I  wonder  if  you  can  recall  as  vividly  as  I  the  day  when 
first  we  met,  —  the  old  seminary  at  Alexandria,  the 
simple  but  manly  life  there,  our  talks,  with  fit  compan- 
ionship though  few,  the  room  in  the  wilderness,  the 
Chapel  and  Prayer  Hall,  Sparrow  and  May  and  the  dear 
old  "  Rab,"  and  all  the  rest  I  How  it  comes  back  again 
out  of  the  mist,  and  how  the  long  tale  of  years  that 
stretch  between  seem  but  the  shadow  of  a  dream !  Your 
privilege  and  mine  it  w^as  to  begin  our  ministries  under 
the  Episcopate  of  one  whose  gifts  and  character  I  re- 
joice to  believe  you  prized  and  loved  as  I  did.  I  have 
been  told  (I  do  not  know  how  true  it  is)  that  you  have 
said  that  one  thing  which  reconciled  you  to  attempting 
the  work  of  a  bishop  was  that  you  would  like  to  try  and 
be  such  a  bishop  as  he   was.     Am  1  blinded  by  filial 


382  Waymarks, 

affection  when  I  say  that  I  believe  you  have  set  before 
you  no  unworthy  model  ?  and  may  I  tell  this  people, 
though  I  know  well  how  your  rare  humility  will  resent 
it,  how  profoundly  I  am  persuaded  that,  succeeding,  as 
you  do,  one  who  has  given  you  a  noble  example  of  entire 
devotion  to  duty,  every  best  attribute  of  the  Episcopate 
will  find  in  you  its  worthy  illustration  ?  Whatever  have 
been  the  limitations  of  your  sympathy  heretofore,  I 
know  that  you  will  henceforth  seek  to  widen  its  range 
and  enlarge  its  unfailing  activities,  and  taking  with  you 
that  singular  and  invariable  magnanimity  which,  under 
the  sorest  provocation,  has  made  it  impossible  to  nourish 
a  resentment  or  to  remember  an  injustice,  you  will,  I 
know  too,  show  to  the  people  of  your  charge  that  yours 
is  a  charity  born  not  of  indifference  but  of  love,  —  for 
Christ,  for  your  clergy,  and  for  your  flock.  He  who  has 
endowed  you  with  many  exceptional  gifts  has  given  you 
one,  I  think,  which  is  best  among  them  all.  It  is  not 
learning,  nor  eloquence,  nor  generosity,  nor  insight,  nor 
the  tidal  rush  of  impassioned  feeling  which  will  most 
effectually  turn  the  dark  places  in  men's  hearts  to  light, 
but  that  enkindling  and  transforming  temper  wliich  for- 
ever sees  in  humanity,  not  that  which  is  bad  and  hateful, 
but  that  which  is  lovable  and  redeemable,  —  that  nobler 
longing  of  the  soul  which  is  the  indestructible  image  of 
its  Maker.  It  is  this  —  this  enduring  belief  in  the  re- 
deemable qualities  of  the  vilest  manhood  —  which  is  the 
most  potent  spell  in  the  ministry  of  Christ,  and  which 
as  it  seems  to  me  you  have  never  for  an  instant  lost  out 
of  yours  ! 


Mission  and  Commission.  383 

Go  with  it,  then,  my  brother,  to  the  large  tasks  and 
larger  flock  that  now  await  you.  We  who  know  and 
love  you,  through  and  through,  thank  God  for  this  gift 
to  the  Episcop'ate  ;  and  not  least  do  we  thank  Him  for 
all  the  graces  of  uncomplaining  patience,  and  self-re- 
specting humility,  and  utter  absence  of  all  bitterness 
and  wrath  and  anger  and  clamor  and  evil-speaking 
which  have  shone  in  you  in  such  rare  and  unfailing 
constancy.  If  there  are  those  who  to-day  misread  you, 
we  are  persuaded  that  they  will  not  do  so  long.  And 
for  yourself,  believe  me,  these,  your  clergy  and  your 
people  as  they  are  henceforth  to  be,  who,  of  whatever 
school  or  opinion,  greet  you,  one  and  all  to-day,  as  you 
take  on  this  your  high  office,  with  such  undivided  love 
and  loyalty,  —  these  will  prove  to  you  how  warm  is  the 
place  in  all  their  hearts  to  which  they  wait  to  welcome 
you !  May  God  in  giving  you  their  love  give  you  no 
less  their  prayers,  and  so  the  grace  and  courage  that 
you  will  always  need  !  How  heavy  the  load,  how  great 
the  task,  and  above  all,  for  that  I  think  is  the  bitterest 
element  in  a  bishop's  life,  how  inexpressibly  lonely  the 
way  !  And  yet,  said  one  whose  office,  as  an  Apostle 
describes  it,  is  that  of  "  the  Bishop  and  Shepherd  of  our 
souls,"  —  and  yet  "  I  am  not  alone  because  the  Father 
is  with  me."  May  He  go  with  you  always  even  to  the 
glorious  end ! 

THE  END. 


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